Endure and Survive
by Ragnarooke
Summary: Third Impact is over, and Shinji has been given a chance to restore the world by living in a new one. Now Shinji struggles to survive in a world plagued by infected humans, and ruthless survivors. Shinji now struggles to survive with his new companions: a gruff smuggler with a troubled past and a spunky, smart-mouthed redhead. He's fought Angels, surely he can handle this, right?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A New Start

Evangelion belongs to Gainax. The Last of Us belongs to Naughty Dog and Sony. I don't anything, so please don't sue me.

 **AN: I recommend reading this chapter again if you read it before the update.**

 **XXXXXX**

Failure. This was one of the many things going through 14-year-old Shinji Ikari's mind as he strangled his fellow pilot, Asuka Langley Sohryu. Tears fell from his eyes as he gripped her throat as tightly as his tired form would allow. Her uncovered eye stared at him, a blank expression adorned her face. His gripped tightened and just when he thought he would be free of this illusion, he felt it.

Her right arm had risen to gently caress the side of his face.

He couldn't believe it, she wasn't an illusion after all! He released his grip and stared into her emotionless eye. It was too much for fractured mind to take in, so he broke down and began to sob atop of her not bothering to get off her. "How disgusting" She whispered without a hint of emotion.

Shinji however, did not hear what she had said. No, his mind had the more important task of trying to keep him sane from all the traumatic events of Third Impact.

In the end his frazzled mind couldn't cope with all that had happened in the last 24 hours, and he soon found himself drifting off into unconsciousness still atop Asuka.

 **XXXXXX**

It was hours later when he finally awoke. He sat up and looked around. The same disturbing scenery of the Mass Produced Evas, the sea of LCL, and the red streak across the moon were still there. But strangely Asuka and the smiling head of Rei/Lilith were nowhere to be seen. At this realization he quickly scrambled to his feet and began scanning the beach around him.

"Asuka! Asuka, where are you!" He yelled out. But there was no reply. He didn't really want to speak with Asuka, but he didn't want to be alone more.

He turned in every direction but couldn't find any trace of the redhead. There weren't even any footprints, just desolation and the sea of LCL. ' _So it was just an illusion after all_ ' He thought to himself. Just as he was about to pick a direction and start walking, he remembered. He looked down and saw a bloodstained cross on a fine silver chain hung around his neck.

"Misato…" He muttered somberly with tears welling up in his eyes. Looking made him remember the woman that had took him in and cared for him when no one else would've. The woman that had teased him and spent time with him, the same woman who had been his commanding officer in battle. She had fought for him, she had kissed him, and in the end she had given her life for him.

At this thought, he walked over to some pieces of wood scattered on the beach, and began to construct crosses for all those he had known. Except for his Father. In the end he truly did hate his Father for all he had done. Abandoning his own son after his mother's death, leaving him with a teacher for ten years, forcing him to fight in a war, and committing mass genocide all for the sake of one woman.

"Why?" He asked

"Why did you do all this Father!?" His voice rose with every word until it became a shrill yell. "Because Gendo Ikari was an insane man." A voice whispered behind him. He whirled around, and that's when he saw her.

Rei Ayanami stood a mere five feet away from him. At that moment, he didn't know whether he should run in terror of hug the girl in front of him. But before he could make his choice, he noticed the girl's feet didn't touch the ground.

"Rei?" He asked with a slight tremble.

She shook her head and said "I'm afraid not little one, I am Lilith." He took a step back and managed to choke out "What do you want with me then?" She smiled softly and looked up at the sky. "To know what it is you truly want." She whispered softly. "What do you mean by that?" He inquired. She looked at him and stated "I can feel it, this isn't what you wanted either, is it?"

"No, I just want things to go back to the way they used to be." He said with a sigh.

"That can be arranged." She said with a small grin. "You mean you can bring the world to it's former state before Third Impact!?" He asked with hope in his voice. "I can bring the world to it's former state before SECOND Impact. Yes, it would be an easy task, but not without a price. And that price requires you." She whispered.

"What do I have to do!?" His reply was immediate.

Her grin then stretched from ear to ear, it was quite unsettling for the boy.

"The world will be restored, but you must go to another one until you breathe your last breath." She giggled. "You're sending me to another planet!?" He replied with a hint of worry. "Another Earth to be exact. Knowing this, do you wish to restore the planet." She replied back.

"Yes." He said with determination filing his voice.

At this her grin became a soft smile once again. "Good. Well you'd better start gathering supplies. You have 24 hours before I send you on your way." She literally sang with a wink. Just as she was about to turn and leave she heard him ask one last question.

"Lilith, where is Rei, and what happened to Asuka?" Concern spilling from every word. Even if she was part Angel, he was very concerned for his half-sister. Lilith tilted her head and whispered "Don't fret little one, the one you know as Rei Ayanami is still alive, she will accompanying you on your journey. But she will only appear to you when you need her most. As for the second, she remains in the sea. What you saw was an illusion created by your unstable mind." His face lit up when he heard this, but fell slightly at hearing Asuka hadn't actually been there at all. But he was happy nonetheless, Rei was still alive somewhere!

He smiled at Lilith and said "Thank you for telling me."

"Of course. Oh by the way, you might want to pack clothes, medical supplies, and weapons for your 'll need them for where you're going, and you might want to hurry because your 24 hours start now!" She giggled before disappearing in a flash of bright light.

At this news, Shinji turned and sprinted on unsteady legs towards the ruins of Tokyo-3. While on the way, he couldn't help but think ' _Why did she say to_ _pack weapons?_ '. Where exactly was she going to send him?

 **XXXXXX**

His first stop was a ruined sporting goods store near the sea of LCL. Inside the store was an absolute mess. Items flung from shelves, windows broken and smashed, and even some damage to the floor. Shinji wandered through the shop, looking for anything he could use. After nearly an hour of searching through the store the only useful items he found were a simple brown backpack perfect for his size, and a sizeable supply of batteries for his SDAT player.

After packing the batteries and his SDAT in his new backpack, Shinji left the store and began walking towards Misato's apartment. After searching many more ruined buildings later to no avail he finally arrived at the apartment building.

The outside of the building itself had sustained little damage, mostly due to it being on the outskirts of the city. He just hoped the inside was just as okay, and made his way through the lobby and up the stairs. Only to arrive at the apartment's front door and find a problem he should've expected.

"Dammit." He spat. He silently cursed himself for not remembering.

The apartment's door was electronic and required a keycard to open, a byproduct of living in such a technologically advanced place like Tokyo-3. But since the city had no power anyway it really didn't matter if he had his keycard anyway. Luckily for him, a piece of debris from another building had been lodged into the door during the N2 bombings.

It hadn't been much, but the debris had hit the door hard enough for it to cave in slightly. Just enough for Shinji to put his fingers through and after a solid twenty minutes of exertion, he finally managed to pry open the door wide enough to slip through.

It was solid steel and required a lot of effort for him to open. Shinji was stronger than his skinny frame led on, but Superman he was not.

"Finally, I made it!" He panted.

After removing his shoes, he walked further into the apartment and called out a small "I'm home!" There was no answer. Not like he had expected one anyway. "Well this place hasn't felt like home for a long time anyway." He said absently. It was then when he noticed the apartment's current state.

It was an absolute mess!

Shinji, being the clean freak that he was, began to tidy up the apartment. He finished his cleaning within an hour, and decided to take a bath to let his mind and body relax a bit. When he finished his bath he noticed the sun was beginning to set. It was at this time Shinji's stomach made itself known.

He soon started to prepare himself some dinner. It was at this time he was thankful for the stove being gas powered and not electrical, and was also silently praising Misato's tactical mind for buying gas powered lanterns and spare candles for emergencies. And so he silently cooked and ate his dinner, all the while wishing his roommates could have been there to enjoy it with him.

Or anyone to enjoy it with.

After finishing his dinner, he began packing all the supplies he needed into his backpack. He got the first-aid kit from the bathroom, all the fresh canned food in the fridge, packed some of the few different clothes he had, and then put them all into his newly acquired backpack. He then pulled out his only pair of sneakers from his closet.

He figured wearing them was a better choice than his dress shoes, and didn't exactly know where he was going to end up. There was also some sentimental value to them. Misato had gotten for him as a gift for defeating the 5th Angel after all. She said he needed to expand his wardrobe, but Shinji was quite content with what he wore, but Misato had bought them for him anyway.

He stared at the simple pair of red sneakers and tried to remember the happier times at the apartment, lately they had been few and very far between. "Nothing I can do to change the past." He told himself. He then took the shoes and set them at the front door before turning out the lights and retiring to the solace of his small bed. He laid there awake listening to his SDAT, trying so desperately to block out the bad memories of everything he had endured in his short life, Third Impact being on his mind the most.

And after a full two hours of music, he finally fell asleep to the somber sounds of Beethoven and the unholy screams of Third Impact echoing in his head. Safe to say, he did not sleep well that night.

 **XXXXXX**

When he awoke the next morning, the sun had already risen. After taking a quick morning shower and brushing his teeth, he made himself a small breakfast and changed into a pair of blue jeans with a brown belt, a plain blue shirt to match, and another white button-up shirt over it. He decided to leave it untucked and unbuttoned.

There wasn't any need to keep up appearances if you were the only person on Earth anyway.

After he finished changing he went back to the bathroom to gather his razor and shaving cream. Just because he was alone didn't mean he was going to grow a beard like his father. He put the items into his backpack and sighed as he decided to bite the bullet and try to find what Lilith had told him to get; weapons.

He trudged slowly towards Misato's room, entered and began to comb over the room for any weapons she might've had hidden for emergencies. After searching Misato's room, Shinji reviewed what he had found: a 9mm pistol he found under her pillow, a tactical knife and some ammo for the pistol he found in her dresser, and holsters for both he found in a separate drawer.

Even though he needed the things spread out in front of him, he still felt as if he was invading her privacy by going through Misato's things. But he quickly cast those thoughts away and focused on putting on the holsters for his new weapons.

After a few minutes of some awkward attempts, Shinji managed to put on the pistol's holster on correctly. He found the knife's holster much easier and simply strapped it to the side of his belt. He turned to leave but stopped on account of the necklace that hung neatly around his neck.

"What should I do with this?" He asked himself somberly. When he arrived at the apartment he cleaned it of the bloodstains, but did not take it off. For a second he thought of leaving it in her room, but squashed that thought when he remembered she had died because of his inaction.

The kiss that came before she pushed him into the elevator suddenly appeared in his mind and brought tears to his eyes. Of all people he had met in Tokyo-3, he was going to miss Misato the most.

He snapped himself out of his trance and proceeded towards the apartment's entrance, but stopped when he passed his and Asuka's rooms. He prayed the fiery redhead would find happiness once the world was restored and not be haunted by her past like he now was.

He knew Third Impart wasn't really his fault, but he still felt like it was his actions that caused it. He had fallen right into Seele and his father's plans.

Before he continued, he looked at the sign on his bedroom door; a simple pink heart with the words ' _Shinji's Lovely Suite'_ written on it. He carefully took the sign off the door, erased the writing on it and wrote one word with the marker attached to its side before laying it gingerly on the floor in front of the door.

The sign's only word simply read ' _Goodbye'_.

He walked over to the front door, slipped on his red sneakers and left the apartment for the last time.

 **XXXXXX**

It had taken him less time to get back to the beach than when he had first awoken there. He remembered the path he took on his way to the apartment and followed it back to the sea of LCL, checking stores along the way.

When he reached the beach he managed to find only enough supplies for a light lunch, as anything else he found was either useless or starting to expire in the humid, eternal summer heat. He sat on a large piece of concrete thrown from a building and began to hurriedly eat what little food he had found along the way.

After finishing he sat there silently and waited for Lilith to show up and send him off. He didn't want to go, but he did want to undo the devastation he blamed himself for. A few hours passed and Shinji found himself starting to doze off when he heard a haunting voice whisper in his ear "Are you ready to go?".

He instantly jerked awake at that.

He turned his head and sure enough Lilith stood just behind him, an angelic smile plastered on her face. He stood up and answered. "Ready as I'll ever be." He replied. She looked him up and down and said "I see you acquired the weapons I recommended."

"Yeah, but what exactly do I need them for?" He asked her. She just winked and said "You'll see when you arrive, but my advice for you is to not get bit and be wary of other humans."

"What does that mea…" He didn't even get to finish his sentence before she poked his chest and his world exploded into pain and he promptly passed out.

 **XXXXXX**

Shinji awoke with a start to a burning pain in his head.

"Ugh, my head!" He groaned out. After the pain subsided Shinji finally took notice of his surroundings. It was an abandoned warehouse with broken windows, a collapsing roof, rust and foliage slowly creeping inside, and what looked like a faded bloodstain on the far wall.

"Where the hell did she send me?" He asked himself. He then realized something was very strange about his speech. "Did I just speak English!? I did it again! I'm still doing it!" He exclaimed to himself.

It was impossible, he couldn't speak English!

He had never learned any English outside of what he had learned in his English class at school. And it's not like he did that well in that class anyway, so how could he be speaking a language he didn't know? Suddenly the voice of Lilith interrupted his train of thought.

"Hello little one, if you are wondering about your speaking English just know that it was my doing to help you on your journey. You can still speak Japanese if you try, but I would recommend sticking with English for now." The voice said to the boy.

"Lilith? Where are you?" Shinji asked aloud. Lilith's voice continued on "As for my voice, I must apologize for the pain, but it was necessary for me to implant this message into your mind before sending you on your way." He sweat dropped at hearing that.

'Well that explains this awful headache.' He thought to himself. "This is likely the last time you will ever hear my voice Shinji Ikari. Good Luck." Lilith's voice said quietly before fading away along with the remaining pain in Shinji's head.

"Alright, let's see where she sent me." He muttered

He stood up before walking towards a large hole on the side of the warehouse that led outside. When Shinji did step outside his jaw dropped in awe of the sight before him. "What the hell is this place?" He whispered to himself.

It was an abandoned city. The metropolis was like Tokyo-3 in the sense that it was completely ruined, but unlike Tokyo-3 nature had reclaimed it. And at first glance was totally abandoned.

The street he now stood on was riddled with the husks of old cars, broken and rotting buildings and, plants growing out of pretty much everywhere. Old barricades stood in the road and a large bridge stood ominously towards the other end of the city. He thought it was beautiful in a primal, unearthly way.

BANG! The sound of a distant gunshot snapped Shinji out of his trance. "Hm, seems this place isn't totally abandoned after all." He said to himself. "Well maybe they can help me out!" He exclaimed with hope in his voice.

He turned and began to walk towards the direction of the gunshot, but stopped when he saw a small diner out of the corner of his eye. He approached the door cautiously, he was in a new world after all, and it didn't hurt to be careful.

Once he reached the front door, he opened it and stepped inside. As he expected it looked old and full of dust. Shinji walked to the counter and read the sign on the wall above it.

" _Angie's Diner, Awarded best family diner in the U.S. in 1976._ " He read aloud. He surprised himself with that little feat. "Well looks like I'm in America, and I can READ English along with speaking it!" He exclaimed with a whistle.

He then noticed another sign that read ' _Proud Sponsors of the Pittsburgh Panthers!'._

"Pittsburgh, huh? Yep definitely never heard of this place before." He droned. It was at this time Shinji heard another gunshot, closer to him the first.

With the knowledge of where he was, Shinji promptly exited the diner and walked on towards what he thought could be help.

To be continued…

 **XXXXXX**

 **Well that wraps up the first chapter of my first story, Endure and Survive! I've wanted to see a crossover like this for such a long time, but unfortunately as of my writing this there is only one other Eva x The Last of Us crossover on the site. So with that in mind I decided to take up the mantle and write it myself. So let me know what you think, and if you catch any spelling or grammar errors let me know and I'll gladly fix them.**

 ***Update!* Good golly, miss Molly was this chapter was a mess. But that's what I get for trying to rush this story. As you all can see Endure and Survive isn't dead, and I will be updating old chapters along with posting new ones soon! I apologize for the long delay, but since this is my first story I went overboard without planning an overall story. But now I have one and will continue to write.**

 **Sayonara, Peace!**


	2. Chapter 2: Food Chain

Chapter 2: Food Chain

Evangelion belongs to Gainax. The Last of Us belongs to Naughty Dog and Sony. I don't anything, so please don't sue me.

 **XXXXXX**

As Shinji continued down the road by the diner, he noticed a building to his right. It was an average building with little distinguishing features, but its broken front doors caught his eye as he passed by. ' _Those doors look like they've been forced off their hinges.'_ He thought to himself.

He started to approach the doors but stopped when flashes of the JSSDF's attack on NERV entered his mind. ' _Doors usually aren't forced off of hinges for good reasons.'_ He mentally reminded himself. But after a few seconds of staring curiosity got the better of him, and he walked carefully towards the front of the building. "Well not like I have anything better to do." He said to himself.

And in reality he didn't, the gunshots had long since stopped in the half hour he had been walking.

Once he had entered, Shinji realized what the place was. It was an old dry cleaner building. The growing plant life and faded sign outside had left him unable to tell before he entered. "Hello?" Shinji called out. There was no response, so he continued further into into the decaying building.

He made it past the doors and noticed the pieces of glass that lay on the floor of the entrance. He carefully tried stepping over them but a few shards crunched under his feet. He then took in his surroundings. Tiles were missing from the ceiling, washers and dryers left hanging open and an air of decay and blood hung in the air. "Just what happened to this place?" Shinji muttered as he wandered through the rows of machines.

As he got to the end of the row and rounded the corner, he stopped dead in his tracks.

"What the hell!?" He squeaked, horror filling his voice. Laying against the wall in front of him was a man that was clearly dead. The man sat with his back against the wall and was completely covered in what looked like to Shinji, some sort of bizarre fungus.

' _Is that stuff growing out of him!?'_ He thought in horror. And on closer inspection Shinji found it was in fact growing out of the man. It was at this time that Shinji noticed the revolver the man held in his left hand. He made a move to pick up the gun when he heard the same crunch of the glass he had tried to avoid when he came in. He stood and made his way towards the sound, but stopped before he rounded the corner on account of the odd sound he heard.

*Click, Click* It was a bizarre, almost alien clicking noise, as if it was an animal that should not have been alive.

Shinji then noticed the bipedal shadow that had now been casted on the wall to his left. It was a person! It had to be. But if it was a person, why would they be making that awful clicking sound?

Shinji crept forward and peeked around the corner only to discover something he wasn't expecting. It was a woman with the same sort of fungus as the dead man growing out of her head, but unlike the man from before she was alive and moving in a very unnatural way.

"Jesus…" Shinji whispered. The woman took no notice of him.

She walked, more staggered, in random patterns at the front of the cleaners. As she walked she continued to make the strange clicking noise. Shinji didn't know what to make of his current situation with the woman. As she walked closer to him, Shinji knew he shouldn't make his presence known to the woman. The dried blood that caked her face and shirt were evidence enough for him to stay away from her.

Shinji knew that he had to get out of there. But how would he do it without being seen? Shinji quietly observed the poor creature for a few minutes before learning she walked slowly in a jagged figure-eight pattern. He then formed his escape plan. Shinji didn't know why the woman walked in such a predictable pattern, but he knew that was his ticket out.

' _Why the hell is she making that sound and what is that stuff growing out of her?'_ He thought to himself.

He dropped to a crouch and made his way along the other side of the row of machines he stood behind. When he reached the end, he stopped and listened for the woman's footsteps. They were headed in the opposite direction, just as he had hoped. But when he went to make his move, it happened.

Shinji knew he was a clumsy person, and had never hated himself more for it than that particular moment. He slipped on the remains of what could've been a shirt, and promptly fell backwards with a small thud before he could round the corner.

*Raagh!* The woman's footsteps quickened, and advanced towards Shinji. Before Shinji could react the woman had rounded the corner in front of him. *Click Click!* She stopped a few feet away and jerked her head about wildly. Shinji was frozen and couldn't move, no matter how much he so desperately wanted to run away.

After a few heart stopping seconds the woman returned to the pattern she previously walked. Only after she walked away did Shinji dare breathe. ' _She's blind!'_ He thought to himself. It made sense when he calmed down enough to think about it. He didn't see any eyes after all.

He then stood up and quietly crept toward the exit, careful to avoid the glass on the floor. During his slow trek he took out his 9mm pistol, switched off the safety and slowly backed out of the dry cleaners, all the while keeping his gun trained on the woman. It was only because of his walking backwards that allowed him to notice the second figure inside that had emerged from behind a row of washers.

It was another woman, but unlike the other she had no fungus sprouting from her head. Dark black hair obscured her face as she stumbled towards the front of the cleaners. Her clothes were ragged and torn, but she walked somewhat more normally than the first woman. Shinji took notice of her and lowered his gun. Maybe she needed help!

Shinji waited for the fungus lady to get a good distance away before whispering "Miss, are you ok?". She raised her head to look at him, and at that moment Shinji knew, he had fucked up.

Blood leaked from her mouth, nose and eyes, and bits of fungus had begun to sprout from her face. She snarled at him and began to sprint towards Shinji, shrieking all the while. Time seemed to slow down as she covered the distance in seconds but just before she could reach Shinji, he put a bullet between her eyes.

*Raaaghh!* Before Shinji could react to what he had just done, the other woman was upon him. She tackled him and tried desperately to sink her teeth into his throat, but he blocked her by putting up his arm. Unfortunately for him, she wasn't picky about where to bite and quickly sank her teeth into his left forearm.

"Aargh!" He groaned in pain. He struggled and pressed his 9mm to the side of her head before pulling the trigger. Shinji's vision swam and his ears rang because of the close distance of the gunshot. Only a few minutes later did he recover enough to notice the woman was now dead atop of him. He groaned and pushed her off.

He sat up and stared at the corpses that lay at his feet. Just what the hell were these women? "Aah!" He gasped in pain. He looked at his arm to assess the damage of the bitemark. "Well it doesn't look too bad." He told himself. He holstered his gun and stood up. Shinji looked at the corpses once more before walking outside.

Shinji walked over to a nearby car, took out his first-aid kit, and prepared to treat his injured arm. The first-aid kit he brought with him came with a small sewing kit and he knew he was going to have to make use of it. He started by pouring some peroxide on his arm, and only the knowledge that noise could attract more of those things kept Shinji from screaming. He then threaded the needle and proceeded slowly and painfully to sew up the bite.

When Shinji was finally finished sewing, he had tears in his eyes and felt weak in the knees. He dried his eyes and put some bandages on his arm before packing his supplies. He sighed and walked back over to the two dead women. He stared at them silently, wondering just what had caused them to act the way they did.

It only took a few seconds before Shinji realized 'Wait, didn't Lilith say not to get bit!?' He thought in horror. He knew why she had told him those things, this world was full of zombies! Or at least something like them, and he was already infected. Fear began rapidly creeping into Shinji's mind, he would have to cut off his arm! He had watched enough western zombie movies with his roommates to know what happened when someone is bitten by a zombie.

" **Do not be afraid, you cannot be infected. You will be fine, I will protect you."** A muffled voice whispered in Shinji's head.

"Lilith? Is that you?" He asked. There was no reply. But at hearing he couldn't be infected Shinji was able to calm himself.

"Weird. It didn't sound like her anyway." He told himself. A gurgling groan snapped Shinji out of his stupor, and he quickly decided running in the opposite direction was a better idea than sticking around. If the voice in his head was correct, he couldn't get infected but he still didn't want to get eaten, so he set out in search of anyone who wasn't infected.

 **XXXXXX**

After several more hours of walking the sun was beginning to set, and Shinji had yet to find another living soul that didn't want to eat him. He turned to the setting sun and smartly decided to find shelter. Stumbling blindly in the dark wouldn't be very safe or smart. Shinji turned and surveyed his surroundings, looking for the best potential shelter. The building to his right had a bus smashed through the front, and he couldn't go any further down the road because of the flooded street. He couldn't swim and didn't plan on testing the depth of the flooded street.

His best options were the large hotel to his left or go back the way he came, he did remember seeing an apartment complex on his way through Pittsburgh. A distant animalistic shriek made his choice for him. "Hotel it is." He said.

As it were, Shinji happened to be on the back side of the hotel, which made getting inside a bit harder than the front doors. Shinji cautiously walked toward the door he spied on the back of the building. *Grrr!* A low growl stopped him from going any further.

A group of infected were slowly trudging around the door, luckily none had noticed him. ' _Well shit, that makes things harder.'_ He mentally groaned. A shadow overhead caught his attention as a pigeon flew over his head and into the hole in the side of the hotel. Several wooded planks had been placed as a makeshift bridge across from the office building to the left of the the hotel.

Shinji saw his chance and moved swiftly and quietly toward the office building. When he entered, Shinji instantly knew something was off. There were bodies inside, more infected were strewn about with what looked like knife wounds to their heads.

Suddenly a gunshot echoed from upstairs. The infected outside paid little attention, the sound being far enough away from them. Shinji smiled and thought to himself ' _Finally someone who's not a zombie!'_. He then ran through the room and up the staircase towards where the gunshot had come from.

"Yeah! You see that one Marcus? Blew it's fuckin' head off!" A gruff male voice echoed through the halls of the the hotel. Shinji slowed his pace and walked towards the voice. "Yeah I saw it, hotshot. At least you actually hit the damn thing this time!" Another voice teased the first.

The hallway Shinji walked down ended in a T intersection, with doors lining both halls. Shinji walked into the middle of the intersection, and saw an open door to his right. He turned and made to go to it, but before he could two men with rifles exited the room.

"Excuse me, I'm a bit lost. Can you help me?" He asked the two men. Their reactions were not what he was expecting.

"Fuck yeah, we got a live one!" One of them said with an insane grin. The other mirrored his expression and raised his rifle. Shinji's eyes widened and he sprinted back down the hall and around the corner before the man could fire. Bullets raced past him as he ran. He reached another intersection and took a left and hid behind some boxes that laid in a pile.

The two men reached the intersection a few seconds later. "He's a fast little shit, isn't he?" One to the other. "Will you shut up and find the little fucker already, I'm tired of this goddamn hotel." The second snapped at the first. The two men then started walking in opposite directions, one of which was heading right for Shinji!

The men kicked open doors as they went, pointing their rifles into the rooms and walking inside each one. When the man closest to him walked into the room across the hall from him, Shinji saw his chance. He crept silently towards the man, took out his pistol, and pressed it to the back of the man's skull.

He channeled as much of his father as he could into his voice "Put the gun down, quietly!" He snarled in a vicious half whisper. And surprisingly enough, the man complied and raised his hands up. "Alright kid, what do you want?" The man snapped back. "I just want to ask you a few questions." Shinji said in a neutral tone.

"What are those fungus things?" Shinji asked the man. "The infected? Where the fuck have you been kid, under a rock?" The man snapped at Shinji. "What are the differences between them, I know some are blind and others aren't!" Shinji snarled quietly at the man. The man groaned and said "It's called the Cordyceps fungus just so ya know. It turns humans into the infected, safe to say if you get bit you're screwed."

"Nice to know, but I'll ask again what're the differences between them." Shinji growled at the man. "The fungus mutates people into four different stages: runners, stalkers, clickers, and bloaters." The man said to Shinji. "Runners aren't blind and attack people on sight, stalkers aren't blind either, but unlike runners they like to ambush ya. Then there's clickers, they're the blind ones, and lastly bloaters. Bloaters are those big ass blind ones that throw spores." The man drawled out.

"Any recommendations for fighting them?" Shinji asked the man. He snorted and said sarcastically "Kid if you don't already know this shit, how the fuck are you alive?" Shinji pressed his gun slightly harder to the man's skull. "Well if you insist, runners can be strangled, all other can't. Clickers are blind and stupid, so they're easy to kill. Bloaters are blind too, but if you see one you're likely already dead. They're built like tanks thanks to that fungal armor of theirs, and their echolocation is unbelievable." The man sputtered in response. _'Echolocation, huh. Must be how that clicker bit me earlier.'_ Shinji thought.

Unknown to Shinji during his questioning, the other man that had been checking rooms had caught the last little bit of their conversation outside the door. "Why were you guys trying to kill me?" Shinji asked the man. The second man promptly rushed through the door and smashed the butt of his rifle into Shinji's head, causing him to fly forward onto the ground.

"It's because you were intruding in OUR city you little punk!" The first man yelled at him. He raised his rifle to finally end Shinji's life. *BANG!* Before he could pull the trigger, Shinji had managed to sloppily aim and shoot him in the chest. The bullet pierced his heart, and ended his life in a mere second. The second man had barely been able to react when it happened.

The man grabbed a plank of wood that was propped against a bed to his right, and quickly smacked the pistol out of Shinji's hands. He tossed the plank away, dropped atop Shinji, and promptly began to strangle the poor boy.

"You're gonna pay for what you did to Marcus you little shit!" The man screamed in Shinji's face.

Shinji struggled as hard as he possibly could but it was no use, he simply wasn't strong enough to knock the man away. He landed a few good punches to the man's face, but he simply shrugged them off. Just as his vision began to swim, Shinji remembered his tactical knife. He hurriedly unsheathed it and stabbed into the man's stomach. He shrieked and jumped off of Shinji.

Shinji took a few quick breaths and scrambled to his feet, and flipped his knife to a reverse grip. The man had mirrored his actions with the exception of a knife and was now rushing for his gun. He then picked up the rifle and made to fire, but Shinji delivered a spinning roundhouse kick to his head before he could fire.

The man stumbled backwards, switched on his gun's safety and proceed to use it like a bat. Shinji saw the swing coming and ducked underneath, flipped his knife back into a forward grip, and drove the blade into the man's neck.

The man dropped his gun and fell backwards, knife still firmly lodged into his neck. With a sputtering cough the man wheezed out his last words "You'll pay... the rest will come for you...you're already dead…". The man choked on his own blood as he ceased to move.

Shinji's eyes were wide with disgust at what he had just done. He had murdered these men! Sure it was self defense, but he still took human lives! He sat down and wiped the tears from his eyes. He didn't want to hurt anyone but they had forced him.

"I feel sick…"

 **XXXXXX**

 **ONE WEEK LATER…**

A full week had passed since the encounter at the hotel. After exploring more of Pittsburgh, Shinji was not happy with what he found. More of the men Shinji had dubbed the "Pittsburgh Bandits" had infested the city, and had the whole city on lockdown with patrols constantly sweeping the city. As Shinji saw it, there was no escape for him without some help.

There weren't many infected left inside the city thanks to them, but that was the only thing Shinji gave them credit were murderers, rapists, and thieves. All who entered the city likely didn't leave alive thanks to them. Mostly because of the armored truck with a mounted turret they kept in peak condition. Any survivors that they found were chased down and shot, and sometimes the women they caught were taken back to the bandits' base to be used as warm bodies. Shinji hated that most of all.

It made Shinji sick! They also didn't keep any children around, and when someone turned up pregnant it was a swift death that followed. Shinji so desperately wanted to help the people that had succumbed to these awful people. But he was only one person against an army. All he could was watch from his hotel with the binoculars he swiped from a group of them.

Shinji found the horrible acts they committed made them easier for him to kill. He didn't want to kill them and felt awful for doing so, but it was him or them. Sometimes you have to kill someone you don't want to for the better of your own survival. Kaworu had burned that lesson into his head, and he would never forget it.

As he skulked through the city during the week Shinji noticed a rather large group of survivors had entered the city, only to get ambushed by large groups of bandits. It was the same trick he saw them do repeatedly during the week, and it had worked on the large group forcing them to scatter throughout Pittsburgh.

While not observing the ambushes and gathering supplies Shinji had been forced to defend his little base several times throughout the week. Like the man he stabbed had said, bandits had indeed came for him, more to look for their missing friends than to kill him. But once they found him it always ended in bloodshed. Shinji won every battle, but felt a small piece of his humanity leave him after every kill.

After the first few attacks on the hotel, he stopped trying to reason with them and actively hunted them if they came inside the hotel. Not that he was always successful at killing them all, but he certainly gave the ones that escaped quite a fright. It wasn't everyday you see some scrawny kid murder all your friends. In the last attack a few bandits escaped and had most likely warned the others of his presence.

That being said, the ones that did engage him in close quarters all met a swift execution. Though just a pilot, he was a trained soldier after all. All the training in the Eva simulator combined with the self defense lessons all pilots took helped him when anyone decided he wasn't worth wasting a bullet on. Sure he could use the pistol and pilfered rifles, but he wasn't the best shot yet. Shooting in Unit-01 was a bit different than doing it himself, but he was improving. But until he was a better shot, stealth was his better option, especially with the ever increasing amount of bandits checking the hotel.

He sat the pair of binoculars down next to him and reloaded his 9mm with what little ammo he had left. ' _I'm starting to run low again.'_ He thought to himself. He stood atop the hotel's roof and had been watching the bandits' movements. There had been another ambush today, and unlike the last this had been a rather small group. A small pickup truck had entered the city using the highway and had to make a detour due to the amount of cars on the freeway. It approached the ambush point where a bandit feigned injury, the usual procedure.

Then the truck did something Shinji found quite odd, insteading of stopping and getting out the driver sped up. The bandits emerged from their hiding spots and began to shoot at the truck, but it just kept going. The only reason it stopped was the the bus that was pushed down the hill and smashed into the truck.

Shinji expected it to end there but the gunshots continued on for a solid 15 minutes. The sight of the armored truck rolling towards the ambush point made him smirk, these survivors must've been tough. Tough enough for the bastards to call in for help. He hoped whoever it was had gotten out of there, anyone who put a dent in them was a big help to Shinji.

It was the he noticed the slow trickle of bandits that had began to filter into the hotel, it seemed they hadn't forgotten about him after all. He checked the bandage on his arm and thought to himself ' _Looks like that odd voice was right after all. I haven't turned yet.'._ After a week, his arm was healing nicely but he kept the bandage on regardless. Best not to antagonize them more by showing off a bite mark.

He wore the same blue shirt, white untucked shirt over it, and jeans he wore the first day. After wearing his other clothes and realizing taking a shower or bath was out of the question, he decided to wear what was most comfortable for him. He did however, find time to shave his face with what little water he could spare to do so. He did NOT want to look anything like his father.

Well at least he still had some deodorant left. He really hated not being able to bathe and wash his clothes, but reminded himself of why he was there in the first place whenever he became too frustrated. And Shinji being the clean freak that he was, also hated the state of affairs of the room he slept in and tried to keep it clean best he could. "Aww man, I'm starting to itch." He groaned, .

*BANG!* *BANG!* The roar of gunfire inside the hotel caught his attention instantly. "Looks like they must've found more infected on the lower floors again." He said aloud. A few seconds passed then the gunfire started again, the amount of shots being fired increased. Shinji's eyes widened and he realized what was going on.

It was people they were shooting at, not infected!

And by the sound of things the survivors were shooting back. Shinji instantly made his decision, he was no longer going to stand idly by! He was going to help these people! He put his binoculars into his backpack, and considered taking one of the hunting rifles he pilfered. Ultimately he decided it would only slow him down. He was going for speed, not power.

Shinji took a deep breath before unholstering his pistol, switching off the safety, and sprinting through the rooftop door, down the staircase and off to help whoever was shooting. And maybe, just maybe, find a way to get out of the city.

To be continued…

 **XXXXXX**

 **Well this concludes the second chapter of this strange tale. Shinji's fighting style in this story is going to reflect his fighting style in Unit-01, more melee based because pallet rifles were useless. No seriously, when did they ever do any damage!? Prog knife solves all problems! And as for Shinji being to kill, I really think after Third Impact Shinji would be a lot more unstable mentally. Not just because of what happened during Third Impact, but the Angel Wars as a whole. He's a soldier through and through and does what he can to survive, but is still remorseful of what he's forced to do to survive.**

 ***Update!* This chapter wasn't as bad as Chapter 1 but it still had some things that needed change, mostly minor grammatical things.**

 **Sayonara, Peace!**


	3. Chapter 3: The Hero!

Chapter 3: The Hero!

Evangelion belongs to Gainax. The Last of Us belongs to Naughty Dog and Sony. I don't anything, so please don't sue me.

XXXXXX

It had been a few minutes since the shooting had stopped, but Shinji had yet to encounter anyone be they friend or foe. He quickly checked the floors as he went, looking for any potential threats or allies. But so far he wasn't having much luck.

He crept swiftly and quietly through the sixth floor of the ten-story hotel. ' _I've got a lot of ground to cover, I hope whoever it was isn't dead.'_ He thought. The sound of fast approaching footsteps caused him to scramble behind a desk that lay across the hallway.

The bandit whose footfalls caused Shinji to hide passed his hiding spot and ran towards a hole in the floor that led the floor below. A smart choice considering the nearest staircase was blocked with too much debris to allow passage onto the fifth floor. When the man reached the hole he slowed his pace and silently climbed down through it.

Shinji slowly followed his lead and peered into the hole, but no one was underneath. But he was NOT going to get away, only to hurt other people that didn't deserve it!

*CRASH!* A large impact could be heard throughout the building, along with a feminine voice's shouting. A few seconds later more shouting, this time sounding more masculine and a lot more muffled followed the first voice. At hearing this Shinji knew it was time to act, and dropped down through the hole.

The bandit was nowhere to be seen.

As Shinji saw it he had two choices: go down the dead end hallway that the fifth floor consisted of, or continue going down the other floors in search of the lone bandit. An echoing pistol shot from the end of the corridor made his choice for him.

Shinji sprinted towards the intersecting hallway and turned the corner. "Let go of me, you fuck!" A girl's frenzied shout from Shinji's right caught his attention. The bandit from before stood at the end of the grappling with a young girl that looked to be about Shinji's age.

The girl had managed to knock the man's gun away and tried her hardest to stab the man with the switchblade she held in her right hand, but the bandit clearly had the strength advantage over her. "Tough little bitch, aren't 'cha!" The snarled in the girl's face. "FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE!" She screamed back. Even though the bandit was stronger, he couldn't let go of the girl to get a clear shot.

Shinji wasn't about to let this girl get killed, so he raised his gun. Unfortunately the pair's struggling wasn't allowing him a clear shot, he was going to have to go in for a melee kill. Fortunately for him, neither of them had noticed him yet. The man had his back to him, and girl obviously had more important things to keep track of than him.

Shinji readied himself and took off down the hall towards the pair, knife and pistol in hand. Once Shinji got within melee combat distance he fired a quick shot into the back of the man's leg , causing him to drop to his knees. He then grabbed a handful of the man's long hair and yanked his head back. Shinji then drove his knife into the man's jugular.

The entire ordeal spanned only a few seconds before it was over.

Shinji removed his knife, flicked away the blood, returned it to its sheath and holstered his gun before turning his gaze towards the girl. And when he did, cobalt blue met emerald green. The girl was his height with dark red hair tied in a ponytail, emerald green eyes, and a small scar on her right eyebrow. Her clothing consisted of a bright red shirt with an orange sunset logo and long black sleeves, faded blue jeans, faded red sneakers, and a green backpack adorned with a few buttons and a keychain of a bizarre catlike creature.

The girl held a kind foreign beauty to her, or at least it she did to Shinji considering the only other non-Japanese person Shinji ever met had been Asuka. Try as he might, Shinji couldn't keep the slight blush off his face.

"Hey, thanks for the save man! You're not gonna try kill me now, right?" She panted. "W-what no, I don't want to hurt you! I couldn't just stand back and do nothing!" He exclaimed. "Whew, that's good." The girl said after putting her switchblade away. "Oh! M-my name is S-Shinji Ikari by the way." Shinji stuttered and gave the girl a respectful bow. The girl smiled and said "Well aren't you a gentlemen. The name's Ellie, Ellie Williams." The girl, now revealed herself to be named Ellie, gave an exaggerated bow in response to Shinji's own.

The sight made him chuckle slightly. "Not to upset you or anything but your name, it's foreign right? I mean I've never heard it before." Ellie asked carefully. The last thing she wanted was to anger a stranger, who happened to be armed, while she was separated from Joel. Even if he did save her life

He chuckled again and said with a hint of pride "Of course, I'm Japanese."

"Ok, cool." Ellie replied. She then looked down at the body at her feet and admired Shinji's handiwork. "Shit, you don't mess around do ya?" She asked. He shook his head and growled out "These guys don't deserve any mercy from me, not for the horrible things I've seen them do."

Ellie shuddered slightly at that, she had seen the garage full of bodies. She knew all too well the type of people these bandits were. And it was clear Shinji did too, even more so than she did.

Ellie turned back to Shinji before asking "Hey, are you alone out here?"

He lowered his gaze before answering. "Yes. I'm the last of my group." He replied while stretching the truth. He knew he couldn't lie to save his life, so he simply thought of himself in regards to all those he knew from his previous life. Technically he was the last person from his world, so henceforth he was the last of his group.

Ellie's face fell slightly at hearing that. "I'm sorry to hear that." She said comfortingly.

"It's all right, it's in the past." He said, more to convince himself than her. "Well, why don't you come with me and Joel?" She replied, a hint of hope creeping onto her face.

"Joel?" Shinji questioned. Ellie's eyes suddenly widened and she became very flustered. "Oh shit, Joel! I totally forgot about him for a second!" She exclaimed in a panic. Shinji just stared at her in confusion.

She took a calming breath and said "Joel is my...guardian. He's pretty grumpy, but maybe I can convince him to let you go with us." Shinji's face lit up at the idea of some friendly company and the possibility of getting out of Pittsburgh. "Thank you!" Shinji exclaimed with a friendly smile. Ellie mirrored his smile and said " You're welcome, the three of us stand a better chance of surviving together than all split up." Shinji had just met this girl, but her tone convinced him her words weren't some sort of trick. Three stood a better chance than one or two. And he needed all the help he could get to escape from his current predicament. "Alright, I know a general layout of the city. With the three of us, we might just make it out of here." Shinji replied.

"Good. Speaking of Joel, do you think you can help me find him? We kinda got split up." Ellie asked hopefully. Shinji nodded and said "Sure. Where was he when you last saw him?" She shuffled nervously before replying. "Ha, ha, ha. Well, I assume you heard the huge crash comin' from the elevator shaft, right?" He nodded in affirmation. "Well it was our fault, and Joel fell down into this flooded lower floor." Ellie said while pressing her fingertips together.

"WHAT!? He fell down there!?" Shinji yelled in response. "Yeah...Is that bad?" She asked, concerned by Shinji's reaction. "The lower floors are mostly flooded but the parts that aren't are filled with infected and spores!" He exclaimed. Shinji knew the floors all too well. While exploring his temporary base, he encountered many infected in the basement along with the spores that had taken up residence there.

He really did hate inhaling spores, but the voice's word still held true. He was immune to Cordyceps, no matter how it got into his body. But he found the remains of others who weren't as lucky as he was.

"Oh shit, we gotta get to him!" She exclaimed in a panic. "Right, follow me and keep quiet. There may still be more of those bandits in the hotel." Shinji said while motioning for Ellie to follow. "Not likely." She muttered under her breath.

Shinji quickly led them down the hall to the staircase, and onward as far down as the stairs went without being filled with debris or missing entirely. The pair exited on the third floor, and started to make their way towards the lounge that led to the second floor.

The teens walked into the lounge and were about to acknowledge the room's generally tidy state, until a bandit emerged from the other door at the other end of the room. Shinji didn't notice him at first, but the bandit had noticed them. The bandit quickly raised his pistol and aimed it at Shinji's head.

"Get down!" Ellie yelled and pulled the boy behind some cover. The bullet flew over their heads and impacted in the wall behind them. "Thank you!" Shinji gasped while drawing his gun. "You're welcome, makes us even now." She replied. Ellie looked at him and whispered "Um, now may not be such a good time to say this, but I don't have a gun on me."

"Shit…" Shinji cursed quietly. The pair heard footsteps closing in on their cover, so Shinji raised his gun and blindly fired over the lounge couch the two used as cover. The shot had its desired effect and the bandit dove over the lounge bar's counter. Shinji knew his blind firing had been the right course of action, but it had cost him precious ammo.

He was now reduced to only four rounds left in his pistol. He didn't have anymore after those four shots.

"Ellie, I'm running out of ammo. We're gonna have to make a move soon." He whispered, using the girl's first name. He figured since Asuka demanded he call her by her first name without honorifics, all foreigners preferred it that way. It was ironic, considering Shinji was the foreigner in his current situation. "What do you suggest we do?" Ellie asked. "I don't know, but I'm gonna do something." He replied quietly. Ellie simply nodded and waited for him to act. It seemed she was going to follow his lead.

' _I hope this doesn't get us killed.' Ellie thought._

Shinji slowly peered over the couch, only to have another round go zooming by his head. He jerked his head down and began to assess his options when another round went sailing through the couch and into the floor. The two teens looked at each other with wide eyes, the look on one's face mirrored the other and said the unspoken words both were thinking. It was do or die time!

The couch they now hid behind had rotted due the effects of time, and in its poor state didn't offer much protection against bullets.

Both knew they couldn't stay still, but couldn't move without the possibility of being filled full of lead. "When I give the signal, you run for that couch closer to the door. I'll cover you." Shinji whispered to the girl. Ellie nodded and whispered back "Gotcha, whenever you're ready."

Shinji again peered over the couch, only to lock eyes with the bandit still in his hiding spot from behind the counter. He moved to fire again, but Shinji was faster this time. Shinji raised his pistol and fired at the man. He missed but the shot worked, the man ducked back behind his cover.

Shinji quickly nodded to Ellie and the girl sprang from their current hiding spot and ran towards the other couch. The bandit had apparently realised what they were doing and fired at the girl, but he made his mistake in thinking both teens had been moving to different cover. He sprang from his cover in an attempt to run towards the couch Shinji was hiding behind.

The man's assumption had cost him his life, as Shinji unloaded his remaining ammo and painted the bar in the man's blood. He was dead before he hit the ground. Ellie slowly stood up from her cover and walked over to Shinji, who was checking the man for ammo. "Whew, that was close!" She said to the boy. "No kidding! I almost died, had it not been for you saving me." He replied back. "Again, you're welcome. And like I said, it makes us even. You saved me and I saved you." She said with a sly grin.

"Dammit, not what I needed!" Shinji cursed to himself. Ellie didn't have to ask to his current predicament. The bandit's gun was a revolver, and Shinji's was a 9mm. Shinji turned towards the exit and took a step before Ellie questioned him.

"Hey, aren't you gonna take this?" Ellie asked, holding up the man's revolver. Shinji shook his head and said "I've only used my 9mm and I don't really have much experience with revolvers anyway." It was mostly true, the only time Shinji had ever used a revolver was the Eva-sized one in the fight against the 12th Angel.

Ellie raised an eyebrow and replied "Ok. Well if you don't want it, I'll take it."

Suddenly the sounds of gunfire from the floor below reminded the two of what they were originally doing. "That's Joel! It has to be!" Ellie exclaimed excitedly. "Right. Let's go!" Shinji replied, determination filing his voice.

The two teens ran through the lounge and made their way to the staircase leading to the gunfire. They exited the staircase and found themselves in what appeared to be a large kitchen with various pots, pans, and other cooking items strewn about.

The freshly killed clicker and bandits held their attention until a loud crash followed by a splash echoed in from outside the kitchen. The two immediately ran forward and pushed open the kitchen doors to find a two men struggling in a pool of water.

One of the men straddled the other and held his head underwater, hoping to drown him. He was one of the bandits that escaped the previous attacks on the hotel!

Shinji then charged forward with knife in hand, and Ellie right at his heels. The man saw them coming but was too slow to react before Shinji delivered a hard kick to his man was knocked away onto his back, and Shinji flipped his knife to a reverse grip and went to slash the man's throat, but the bullet from Ellie's revolver beat him to the punch. So he simply sheathed his knife and waited for the second man to catch his breath.

The man that had been held underwater had quickly sat up as soon as the bandit was knocked away. He coughed and sputtered before noticing the two teens that stood over the bandit's body.

"Oh man, that was rough. I feel sick." Ellie groaned in response her own actions. "It's ok, you did what you had to." Shinji comforted. Ellie then turned to the man who had been submerged.

"Um...Hey Joel." Ellie said nervously. Joel in his current state was dressed in a green shirt, old jeans, brown boots, a brown backpack, and wore a broken watch on his left wrist. His scrutinizing brown eyes told Shinji that Joel had obviously been a survivor for quite some time, and had most likely done some unsavory things to survive in this world for as long as he had.

From some of the questions he asked other bandits during their attacks, Shinji had found out the beginning of the global Cordyceps infestation had started twenty years ago. The man's heavy crow's feet and grey hair had reinforced Shinji's thoughts; this man had been through a lot.

Joel turned to Shinji and narrowed his gaze. He kept his eyes on Shinji but spoke only to Ellie. "Ellie, who's this?" Joel growled with a heavy southern drawl.

Seeing he was being addressed, Shinji gave the old timer a polite bow and introduced him. "M-m-my name is Shinji Ikari, sir." Shinji said politely. The bow, stuttering, and the addressing of him as 'sir' caught Joel off guard, but he still kept his gaze on the lad.

"Joel leave him alone, he saved me from one of those assholes. He's alright." Ellie said in Shinji's defense. "I'll be the the judge of that." Joel replied intensely. "Joel, we have to take him with us." Ellie stated. "What, why?" Joel responded. "Because he knows the city, and it's safer with more of us." Ellie said convincingly.

Joel rubbed his temples and looked Shinji in the eye. "Fine. But if you cause trouble, you are gone, understood?" Joel asked the boy. "Yes sir. I won't cause any trouble." Shinji said with a sharp nod. All the while Ellie was silently excited about some company closer to her age, or at least someone she thought looked her age. Her excitement was cut short when Joel walked up to her and yanked the revolver she held out of her hands.

"Hey! What the hell Joel!" She exclaimed angrily. Joel looked her in the eyes and said "No. You don't need a gun." Ellie glared at him before replying. "You know what? No. How about 'I know it wasn't easy Ellie, thanks for saving my ass'! You got anything like that for me Joel?" She growled. Joel glared right back at her and said "I was lucky I didn't get my head blown off by a goddamn kid. Not only did you disobey me, you brought along some other random kid!"

Before Ellie could say anything, Shinji decided to speak up. "She was being attacked!" He said in the girl's defense. Joel's gaze shifted over to the boy. "She also saved my life!" He added. Joel's eyebrows rose in response to hearing that little tidbit of information. "How?" Joel asked. "She pulled me behind cover before this guy could shoot me." Shinji replied. Joel looked at Ellie's pleading eyes before replying. "Well that's all fine and dandy, but I'm still not giving her a gun." At hearing this, Ellie huffed but didn't say anything. "I can't speak for you kid. I take it you can handle yourself?" Joel asked.

"I can." Shinji replied with a look of steel. "Well then, you know this place, so lead the way kid. And don't call me 'sir', it makes me feel old." Joel said to Shinji before walking towards the ladder he was knocked off of. "Um, si-Joel, you don't wanna go that way." Shinji called out. Ellie responded to the rather vague comment.

"Why shouldn't we go that way?" Ellie asked quizzically. "Because when those guys attack this place, they all filter in from the back entrance. Which is the direction we'll be heading if we go that way." Shinji responded. "Then how the hell do we get out?" Joel chimed in.

"We'll have to backtrack upstairs a bit, but the route is probably a lot safer." Shinji answered. "Then let's get the hell outta here!" Ellie exclaimed. The trio then turned towards the kitchen and headed for the staircase once again, with Shinji leading his newfound allies onward. As they walked Joel let out a mental sigh.

' _Great, now I gotta babysit another kid. At least this one seems to know how to handle himself.'_

To be continued...

 **XXXXXX**

 **That's another chapter done! And here it is, the meeting between the main characters. I tried to make Ellie seem like the way she is in the Pittsburgh part of the game, but something felt a bit off. I don't know what it was exactly. Maybe it's because this is my first story? Who knows. But anyways there was a bit of a problem I had during this story's conception.**

 **It was originally just a point brought up during a PM session with a fellow author when this story was just an idea I had for that author to write instead of me. My fellow author brought up the point of a story like this being too similar to the game. And to those concerned with the problem, don't worry there's going to be some major twists later on. Endure and Survive WILL follow the events of the game with additional parts added during parts that occur in parts of 'The Last of Us' that we don't see.**

 **And as a slight teaser, things will really start to change during the 'Winter' section of the game.**

 **One last note. How do you lovely readers feel about the lengths of the chapters? I feel they are just too short, but maybe it's because I like long chapters. Anyway, let me know what you think about it.**

 **Sayonara, Peace!**


	4. Chapter 4: Road Rage

Chapter 4: Road Rage

Evangelion belongs to Gainax. The Last of Us belongs to Naughty Dog and Sony. I don't own anything, so please don't sue me.

XXXXXX

After a while Shinji and his new allies reached the planks of wood that he had originally used to enter the building. "Are you sure this is safe?" Ellie asked with a hint of worry. Shinji just looked at her and nodded. Shinji then led the trio down into the next building, and eventually onto the street.

"Where to now kid?" Joel asked. Shinji scratched the back of his head and responded "Off the street. We don't want to be out here when their armored truck rolls by." Ellie's eyes widened at the mention of the truck. "A-armored truck!?" She sputtered

Shinji nodded in response and said "They have this armored truck with a bunch of them riding on it. It looks like a militarised humvee with a turret attached on top. I've seen it at work, that turret shreds anybody it hits. We need to stay inside." Ellie shuddered at the thought of being caught in said humvee's fire.

"What's the best route for gettin' outta here?" Joel asked gruffly. Shinji sweat dropped at the question. "Well, I haven't exactly figured that out yet. From what I've seen the best chance of getting out is right under their noses. They have an outpost towards the opposite end of the city, and I tried watching them from afar. But my binoculars could barely see what they're doing because I couldn't get close enough to see them without getting caught." Shinji answered. "I thought you knew the city." Joel drawled out. "Hey, I've only been here a week!" Shinji snapped.

"So what would you recommend we do now?" Ellie asked.

Shinji thought for a moment before answering. "We get close, find a vantage point, and monitor their movements." He said to the two. "Well then lead on, spirit guide!" Ellie said sarcastically, hoping to get a laugh out of him.

"Spirit guide?" Shinji wondered with a confused face. Ellie just waved him off and replied "Forget it. Bad joke."

' _It was a joke?'_ Shinji thought to himself.

Refocusing on his task the young guide quickly led his companions from building to building, trying desperately to reach a good vantage point before sundown. He did not want to be wandering aimlessly in darkness. It would be like the blind leading the blind.

After a good hour of walking, climbing, and dead ends, the trio eventually reached an abandoned factory. As they neared the end of a long corridor with broken windows, the roar of an engine came fast approaching. "Get down!" Joel ordered. All three then quickly crouched below a broken window as two people, a man and a woman, came running past the window. They didn't make it far however, as the gunmen aboard the mechanical juggernaut opened fire.

The man was shot through the head, but the woman was hit in the spine and began screaming in pain. The truck pulled up to the two and the gunmen jumped off and immediately shot the woman in the head. The thugs then started to check the pair for any useful items, and quickly left when none were to be found.

Ellie could only stare in horror at the events that had just unfolded before her eyes. "What the fuck is wrong with these guys!?" She whispered, horrified. Shinji turned to the distraught girl and stated coldly "Like I said, they don't deserve any mercy. Come on, let's go. We don't wanna be out here when night comes." All the while Joel had just watched the terrible event with a blank look on his face.

That look made Ellie question Joel's knowledge of their ambush, but when asked about it he simply said he'd been on both sides of an ambush. That made Shinji a bit weary, and so he made a mental note to keep an eye on Joel for now. After everything he went through Shinji was reluctant about trusting people, but try as he might Ellie's spunky nature was growing on him.

The three climbed the stairs of the factory before using a fire escape to climb back down to ground level. They were met by a pile of burnt bodies and garbage, but it was nothing new to the survivors. A broken steel fence followed by a small drop separated them from the highway that led closer to their destination.

Joel and Ellie started heading for the drop when Shinji called for the pair "I'm sorry, but this is as far as I've been in this direction. I don't know what's past the drop." Joel groaned in response and pinched his nose. "Great. Now we're flyin' blind." He groaned. "Hey, look at it this way. Whatever we find is a new experience for all of us!" Ellie said with a grin. Joel sighed in response.

Shinji couldn't help but smile at the girl's optimistic attitude, he just wished he could've been cheerful like Ellie when he was back in Tokyo-3. Thinking of Tokyo-3 suddenly made Shinji wonder what everyone there was doing now.

'Whatever it is, I hope they're okay.' He thought hopefully.

"... me, Shinji. Earth to Shinji!" Ellie called to the boy. "I'm sorry. What did you say, Ellie?" He replied bashfully. Ellie smirked and responded "You were gone for a second, huh? We're moving on now."

"Oh! Right, let's go." Shinji replied with an embarrassed blush. His scarlet red face made Ellie laugh, and furthered his embarrassment. The teens then dropped down onto the highway where Joel was waiting with a poorly hidden amused grin on his face. As they walked along the highway covered in patches of tall grass and rusted vehicles, Ellie suddenly started to whistle random tones. The bizarre action got both males' attention. "What are you doin'?" Joel asked the girl. "Whistling. I finally figured out how." She responded before continuing trying to form a tune

"Oh great, somethin' else you can annoy me with. Don't suppose you CAN'T whistle?" He said while looking in Shinji's direction. "No, I can whistle just fine." He replied. This piqued Elle's interest and she couldn't help but to ask the boy to whistle a song for her. She wanted an example to set for herself. The song he delivered was far above what she had been expecting.

What she didn't know about the quiet boy was that he was a classical music fan, and his example wasn't exactly easy. His task set, he quietly began whistling Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy'. Ellie quickly threw the idea of trying to repeat the tune out the window, but enjoyed the tune nonetheless.

When Shinji finished Ellie applauded him with a look of splendor on her face. Even Joel couldn't help but notice the boy's talent for music. "Wow! That was awesome, where did you learn it?" Ellie asked with wonder. Shinji bashfully scratched his nose and replied humbly "I like classical music, it was just a song I knew." Joel raised an eyebrow at hearing that. "Son, that's not just any classical number, that's a Beethoven song ain't it?" Joel questioned. He wasn't too fond of classical music but Joel knew a few of the more famous ones.

Shinji just nodded in return, making Joel think the boy had quite the talent for music. "I bet you'd make one helluva player if you had an instrument, Shinji." Ellie exclaimed, excitedly. "Actually I play the cello. I started when I was five." Shinji replied while pushing his index fingers together.

Joel stopped dead in his tracks at hearing that. Ellie just stared at him with a confused face. "You mean to tell me, you play a classical instrument?" Joel asked the boy. He simply nodded in response before turning to Ellie "I'm guessing you don't know what a cello is, do you?" He asked her.

"Nope, not a clue. But since Joel mentioned 'classical' I'm gonna guess it's something from an orchestra or something." She replied with a shrug. "It's like a big violin." Joel answered for the boy. "Yeah, basically." Shinji agreed.

A sudden gunshot interrupted the group's lighthearted banter, and caused them to scramble behind a burnt out car. Farther up the highway was a quarantine checkpoint and a bus blocking the way, along with three men with rifles atop it. The trio of bandits were trying their hand at shooting a flock of birds flying overhead, but weren't having much luck.

Luckily, they hadn't noticed the trio at all.

Shinji was too far away to hear what they were saying, but could hear them talking. The men jumped off the bus and started walking down the highway towards Shinji and his allies' hiding spot behind the car. As they approached, Shinji could finally hear what they were talking about. Two of them were joking about the third's ability to shoot, or lack thereof.

When they got within 20 feet of the car Joel motioned for them to back up behind a large patch of tall grass. As they got within five feet of the car, Shinji silently drew his knife and prepared for the worst.

But to his surprise the bandits didn't notice them and continued on down the road.

The three didn't dare move until the bandits were out of sight. And all three let out a sigh of relief when they finally stood up from behind the grass. They then resumed walking towards the bus, with Shinji sheathing his knife before moving on. "This shit is gonna give me a heart attack." Shinji muttered to himself. Waiting there in silence reminded him a little too much of the 12th Angel, an experience he never wanted to repeat.

"That makes two of us." Ellie said to the shaky boy. She then noticed his left forearm. She had noticed the bandages earlier, but it was his constant clenching and unclenching of his hand that drew her attention.

"What're you doing with your hand? Does your arm hurt or something?" She asked, concerned.

"Wha-Oh, no! I do that when I'm stressed out. As for the bandage, I kinda f-fell and cut myself on some glass pretty bad last week. But I put some stitches in the cut, so I'm okay now. I just put the bandages on to make sure the stitches don't come out. It doesn't hurt or anything." Shinji said quickly. "Well just let us know if it gets to hurtin'." Joel said calmly. Even though he was a gruff guy Joel wasn't about to let a child under his care suffer in pain. Being a parent made Joel a bit soft towards children, even if he didn't show it.

Shinji nodded and thanked Joel and Ellie for their concern. He then realized it was the most genuine concern anyone, that wasn't Misato anyway, had shown him in quite some time. He thought it felt kinda good to have someone be genuinely concerned for his welfare.

The three decided to move on and used a car that had crashed into the side of the bus as a stepping stone to reach the top of the bus. After climbing atop the bus they took a second to scout the checkpoint before jumping down at the back of the bus. The trio then quietly made their way forward, with Joel taking the lead.

"Hey Randy, you hear 'bout the girl that the scouting party found at the west side of town?" A voice said from further into the checkpoint.

Everyone stopped and dropped to a crouch at hearing someone speak. From what they could hear, the voice sounded like it was just beyond the wall they now hid behind. They didn't dare speak, if the voice was coming there someone would surely hear them.

Joel and Shinji readied their weapons to fight, only to have Ellie tap their shoulders before they could strike. The two males looked at her curiously, and pointed to a broken part of the checkpoint wall. Both understood what she meant, instantly.

Better to leave and save time, than fight an unknown amount of people.

Joel led the group over to the hole, poked his head through, and motioned for the teens to go through it. They eagerly did so and found that they now stood in a small alleyway. After looking over his shoulder, Joel soon followed them.

"How many of these fucking guys are there?" Ellie whispered. "Too many for my liking. No wonder Shinji couldn't get out." Joel responded. Shinji merely nodded and kept walking without a word.

Soon the three reached the end of the alleyway only to find, more voices coming from a building with missing windows. Joel motioned for the teens to stop as he peeked out from behind the corner of the alleyway.

"Oh shit! It's that armored truck." He exclaimed in surprise. Shinji gulped and steeled himself for another potential fight. It was then that Joel decided that maybe it was time for Ellie to hold her own in battle. So he promptly handed her his 9mm while switching off the safety of his recent;y acquired revolver.

"What? Why did you give me this?" She asked, confused. "How about somethin' a bit more your size. It's gettin' too dangerous for you NOT to have a weapon. The safety's on, do you know how to switch it off?" Joel asked the girl.

"Yes, I know to to do that, and I know how to reload it." She said in a sassy manner. "Good. But treat it with respect, it's not a toy." He lectured. "I know, I know! I'll treat it with respect." Ellie replied in an overly sweet tone. Joel sighed before saying to the teens "Back at the hotel, it was either him or me. Thank you, both of you." They gave a simultaneous 'you're welcome' in response.

While Ellie and Joel spoke, Shinji had kept his eyes forward looking for any danger. Thankfully, none came their way. Joel peered around the corner once more and saw the truck wasn't moving anytime soon, and they were pressed for time.

So he made his decision and dropped to a crouch. The two teens mirrored his actions and waited for him to make a move. He looked at the two before quietly whispering "Alright, here's what we're gonna do. That truck doesn't seem like it's goin' anywhere fast, so we're gonna sneak past it. I'm going to need you both to stick to me like glue, understood?" "Understood." Both teens replied before looking at each other and nodding at the other with a small smile. 'Oh hell. I hope that's not what I think it is.' Joel thought to himself at seeing the teens' mirrored smiles.

Joel then motioned for them to get moving, and all three silently stalked forward while watching the truck that sat motionless in front of the building. Its turret swept left and right as men piled supplies into it. As they passed underneath the broken back windows, they could hear even more voices from within. Most of the bandits inside were talking about canned bacon for some reason, it didn't seem very appetizing to Shinji.

When they rounded corner of the building, they realized there was another problem. The road to their left was out of the question due to the crumbled building that lay strewn across the street. They had only one choice, to go across the street past in front of the truck.

They all crept forward towards the rusted police car that could be used as a hiding spot from the turret, and when they reached it they noticed another car that sat horizontally in the street. But before it, was a gap in their cover. They had to move swiftly with hopes the turret wouldn't see them as they passed the gap.

And fortunately, it didn't! Until one of the bandits inside had noticed Shinji, as he was the last one to get behind the rusted car. The bandit yelled and pointed toward the car just as Shinji had gotten fully behind it. The turret then turned toward the group and opened fire.

"RUN!" Joel yelled as he led the teens down the narrow alley in front of them. The truck was soon right on their tail, but they had rounded the corner before any bullets hit them.

Shinji had quickly surpassed his companions in terms of speed and ran ahead of them. The trio heard the truck move again as they ran, but when Shinji rounded the corner of another building he threw himself to the ground to avoid the storm of lead being thrown his way. The alley they were running down had a clear view of the street, blocked only by a steel fence and some dumpsters. The truck made full use of the view as it had stopped at the fenceline and pumped long streams of bullets towards Shinji.

"Look out!" Shinji yelled at his companions, who had just ran around the corner as well. Joel and Ellie also threw themselves to the ground before quickly crawled towards Shinji, who was using the dumpsters as cover. They had a straight shot down the alley to their right since it was between two buildings, and didn't have a clear street view.

The group turned and were about to make their way toward the alley in front of them when they noticed the turret fire cease. Shinji then poked his head up to see the truck back up and realised what it was doing. "Oh shit!" He cursed loudly. He then grabbed Joel and Ellie's hands and pulled them into a sprint with him. Two seconds later the truck had crashed through their makeshift cover and was slowly turning in their direction. Shinji took point again and ran down the right turn in the alley.

He skidded to a stop, it was a dead end! He noticed the door on the building he stood by and quickly threw the door open as Ellie and Joel came around the corner. "In here!" He yelled while motioning the two inside. Once they passed him, Shinji quickly slammed the door and helped Joel with the shelf he was pushing up against the door.

Bullets soon impacted on the door, but weren't able to penetrate it. The trio then ascended the stairs before anyone tried to break down the door. "That thing is ridiculous, no wonder you didn't wanna encounter that thing!" Ellie said to Shinji "Yeah. I've had similar run-ins with it before." He replied. "Gotta say, thanks for the warning though. You saved our asses out there." She responded honestly.

"Y-you're welcome." He replied bashfully. "Oh come on, don't be so humble. We would've seriously been turned to swiss cheese if it wasn't for you!" She exclaimed. "I guess so." He said quietly before continuing on in silence.

"You're kinda quiet, huh? Don'tcha like talking to me?" Ellie said, teasingly. "N-no, that's not it. I'm just not good at interacting with people, so I just don't really say much." Shinji responded with an embarrassed expression, which quickly changed into a gloomy one.

Ellie felt a bit saddened at hearing this. It reminded her of when she had first arrived at the military school in Boston when she was thirteen. Back then, she was a lot like this boy. Getting into fights and not speaking to other kids unless spoken to. But that was then and this was now, and right now Shinji looked like he needed a little support.

"I know what that's like, but you'll get better. I guarantee it!" She said, cheerfully. "How can you really guarantee that?" Shinji asked, curious of what the girl meant. Ellie simply grinned and poked him in the side while saying "I'm gonna help you. If we're going to be traveling together, I don't want you to act all antisocial like Joel the entire time." Joel gave the girl a warning look in response.

Shinji had to suppress a laugh at that.

Shinji hated to admit it, but it was true. Shinji wasn't exactly talkative, a complete contrast to Ellie, who often voiced her opinions whenever she felt like it. His experiences in Third Impact gave him hope that he could learn to forgive himself and live a normal life. Well, as normal a life as he could live in a dying world. But forgiving himself was a very hard thing for Shinji to do.

A life of loneliness and pain took time to leave behind. The horrors of Eva would likely never fully leave the boy's mind.

As they climbed the stairs, Joel overheard their conversation and decided to go easy on Shinji for a while. Heaven knew the poor boy deserved it.

After a few minutes of climbing stairs, the three reached a floor with open windows that led to a fire escape. "Alright, looks like we're safe for a little bit, so look around for anything useful." Joel ordered the teens. They nodded and began to search the desks behind the cubicles in the room.

"Hey Ellie." Shinji called to the girl who stood a few feet away from him. Her gaze lifted from her task of searching a desk drawer and stared into his his eyes. Seeing that he had her attention, Shinji stuttered out "U-um, thank you, for saying you wanted to help me. It really means a lot to me."

She smiled and walked over to the boy. "You're welcome. But like I said, there's no way I'm letting you turn into mini-Joel." She replied with an amused grin. This time, Shinji did laugh at her joke. "I guaranteed I'd help you, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do. You can't back out either. Deal?" She asked with an extended hand.

Shinji looked at the girl's extended hand before slowly extending his own. "Alright, it's a deal." He said while shaking Ellie's hand.

Across the room Joel observed the pair and thought to himself ' _If this escalates I'll have to beat 'em apart with a stick, or have them "fixed".'_

To be continued…

 **XXXXXX**

 **You know the more I write this story, the more ideas I start having for it. Not much to say on this one. Again I'd like to stress the importance of chapter length. What do you readers think, do you feel they need to be longer?**

 **Teaser for something far in the story's future** **: The reason Ellie is immune is because the Cordyceps in her brain mutated. That isn't the case with Shinji.**


	5. Chapter 5: Escape from Pittsburgh

Chapter 5: Escape from Pittsburgh

Evangelion belongs to Gainax. The Last of Us belongs to Naughty Dog and Sony. I don't own anything, so please don't sue me.

 **AN: I highly recommend reading the first few chapters again if you read them before 12/22/16. They have been updated with a lot of things fixed.**

 **XXXXXX**

After sweeping the room Shinji found some much needed ammo, and quickly reloaded his weapon. "You guys find anything? Cause I got nothing." Ellie called out from across the room. "Some spare ammo.", "Not a thing." Shinji and Joel replied back. "Alright, looks like that's everything useful in here. Let's move on." Joel told the teens as they walked toward him.

"Hey Shinji, what kinda ammo did you find?" Ellie asked. "It's 9mm, I found some extra if you need some." He responded kindly. She nodded and sighed in relief. "Thanks. I'm almost out, was afraid I'd run out when I really needed it." She said with a smile.

Shinji handed the box of ammo he found to the redhead, and she reloaded her own gun. "Now that you're both ready, we're goin' out the window so stay right on my tail." Joel told the pair. They nodded and carefully followed him out the window.

The small troupe then exited the building onto the fire escape before climbing down the ladder onto the ledge below. Some wooden planks made a sturdy makeshift bridge for them to cross over to the building on the other side of the alley, which they carefully did.

One by one, they climbed through the open window of the building the planks led to. They were met by what could've passed for a bedroom at one point, and an old bathroom in front of them. Joel walked into it to look for supplies while Shinji and Ellie walked into the small apartment's living room.

From the look of the 'ABC' styled puzzle pieces on the floor, the place had once been home to a family. The longer Shinji stared at the tiles, the more he realized what he had gotten himself into. The world he now lived in was dead and decaying, but he chose to go there of his own free will.

Ellie watched him stare at the pieces with curiosity. "What is it?" She asked the entranced lad. "Um...Nothing, it's just...I wonder what this place was like before all this happened." He responded honestly. "It was sure a lot better than this." Joel cut in as he walked toward the pair.

"It had to be." Shinji said with a bit of sadness in his voice. Joel nodded to the boy and began combing through the rest of the apartment for anything of use while the two teens stood and wondered about life before the outbreak.

After a few minutes, Joel finished his sweep with some ammo for himself and some extra food for the group. More canned peaches. Shinji and Ellie waited for him near an open window at the opposite end of the apartment. He climbed through onto a small ledge under the window and motioned for the pair to follow.

Ellie followed suit with Shinji trailing slowly behind. He tried his best not to look down but couldn't help himself.

' _Add this to the list of really dangerous stuff I've done in the last year._ ' He thought to himself.

They slowly shimmied on the ledge above the alleyway below. The armored truck passed by on the street in front of the alley and made them hold their breaths until it was out of sight. "I'm really starting to hate that thing." Ellie said with an exasperated sigh. "Get used to it, we'll most likely see more of it." Joel told the girl before hopping through another open window.

The sounds of struggled fighting followed immediately after.

He saw Ellie draw her switchblade and climb into the window herself. He drew his pistol and sped up his pace, but considering he was still on the ledge he couldn't go too fast. "Joel! Joel, stop!" He heard Ellie yell from inside. He reached the window and peeked inside to see another kid about his age.

"Leave him alone." The boy ordered. "Easy, son." Shinji heard Joel say to the boy. It was then he heard another person say "Man, you hit hard." Joel simply responded with "Yeah well I was tryin' to kill you." It was then that Shinji got a good a look at the voice. It was a man that looked somewhat similar to the boy, if Shinji didn't know better he might've mistaken them for brothers.

Both he and the boy wore clothes that looked as if time hadn't been kind to them, they had chocolate brown eyes, and dark skin.

The man walked over to the boy and retrieved some bandages from his backpack. Shinji then decided to reveal himself by holstering his gun and hopping through the window. His sudden appearance surprised the newcomers, but not enough to warrant any violence.

"There's more of you, huh? Well the more the merrier. I'm Henry and this is Sam. Think I caught your name was Joel?" The newcomer introduced himself and his brother. "Ellie." Ellie said while gesturing to herself. "My name is Shinji Ikari." Shinji introduced himself with a polite bow. The action made Henry and Sam raise a brow, but neither commented on the strange behavior.

"I thought you were one of them too, until I saw them." Henry said to Joel while pointing to Ellie and Shinji. "If you haven't noticed, they don't keep kids around. Survival of the fittest." Henry said to the group. "I've seen that all too well." Shinji muttered softly.

Henry and Sam explained how their group had entered the city looking for supplies only to be ambushed and scattered. When Henry mentioned getting out of Pittsburgh, Ellie saw a chance and took it. "We can help each other." Ellie said to the newcomers. "Ellie!" Joel scolded. "Safety in numbers and all that, besides Shinji's already going with us what's two more?" She asked with bated breath.

"She's right. We could help each other. We got a hideout not too far from here. Be safer if we chat there." Henry told the trio. At mention of a hideout Joel relented and asked Henry to take them there.

"Sorry about the whole gun thing." Sam said quietly. The other teens assured they would've done the same, before Ellie asked him where he was from. "All the way from Hartford." Sam told the pair. "Really? I heard some bad stuff going on down there." Ellie chatted.

As Sam and Ellie conversed, Shinji merely listened with a confused face. The others seemed to notice and turned their attention to him? After asking Sam where he was from, Ellie remembered she had forgotten to ask Shinji where he was from. Because wherever he was from, one thing was certain.

Shinji had no idea where Hartford was.

"Hey Shinji, I forgot to ask you where you're from. So where ya from." Ellie asked curiously. At hearing her question Shinji began to mentally panic a bit. He knew he couldn't lie to save his life, but he couldn't tell the truth either. They would think he was crazy for sure.

So he decided to bend the truth rather than lying.

"I-uh...I'm from Japan." He squeaked. "Pfft, no way. How did you get here then?" Sam asked the frazzled boy. "I was from a big group of survivors that had been planning on coming here, but I'm the last one now. I'd rather not talk about it if that's okay." Shinji admitted with great sadness in his voice. He didn't exactly lie, the people of Nerv were survivors in their own right. "Sorry man, I didn't mean to upset you." Sam replied sadly.

Ellie simply put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic look.

"I gotta give you credit Shinji. When you said you were Japanese, I expected you to be American-born. Especially with how good your English is, you speak it better than Joel and his accent does!" Ellie teased, hoping to get Shinji out of his funk. He chuckled a little. Her efforts were successful!

Ellie's joke gained her an annoyed look from Joel, fueling Shinji's chuckles even more.

"So if you're really from Japan, you can speak Japanese right?" Sam asked with a hint of wonder. "Hai, watashi wa kanzen ni sore o hanashimasu. Sore wa subete no nochi ni watashi no saisho no gengodesu _._ " Shinji answered in Japanese. Shinji's sudden use of his native tongue had gained the attention of everyone in the room.

"Okay, what the hell did you just say?" Ellie asked. " I said 'Yes, I speak it perfectly. It is my first language after all.'" He informed them. "Well there's something you don't see everyday. Didn't think kids these days took the initiative to learn other languages." Henry chimed in.

"It was kinda mandatory for me, coming here and all." He replied with a shrug. And with that the group continued on towards the hideout.

 **XXXXXX**

It had taken the five a little bit but they eventually made it to the hideout; an abandoned office Henry had claimed for himself.

"Welcome to my office." Henry announced with a motioning gesture. The rest of the group then filtered into the room. "We have some blueberries if you guys are hungry." Sam informed Shinji and Ellie after they entered the room. "Great, I'm starving. How about you Shinji." Ellie asked.

He opened his mouth but before he could say anything his stomach growled loudly.

"I guess you're hungry too, huh?" Sam chuckled. Shinji just blushed and nodded his head. Sam then led the two over to a large couch while Henry and Joel discussed their escape plan in corner of the office. Sam then took off his backpack and sat down, the other two did the same.

Sam reached into his backpack and pulled out a medium sized plastic container filled with blueberries, and promptly sat them on a table in front of the three for easy reach for all of them. Ellie quickly grabbed one and decided to test her aiming skills, and tossed the blueberry into the air.

It then fell back and hit her in the eye.

"Ow!" She exclaimed. Shinji and Sam couldn't help but laugh at that. "You mean to tell me a blueberry hurt you?" Sam asked the girl. "It hit my eye of cou- ...What are you doing Shinji?" Ellie asked with a curious expression.

Sam looked past her and then noticed what she meant. Shinji sat with his legs crossed indian style with his hands together and his eyes closed. "Itadakimasu." Shinji mumbled to himself. He opened his eyes and saw the the two staring at him with curious faces.

"It's a customary thing, it means 'I humbly receive or let's eat'." Shinji proclaimed with an embarrassed expression.

Sam shrugged and Ellie merely smirked and handed him a blueberry.

The three ate in silence and played a game of poker in the floor while Joel slept and Henry kept watch. Unfortunately due to Joel needing his beauty sleep the teens had to keep quiet, less they wake the sleeping grouch. They filled the silence with quiet banter about random topics. As it turned out Ellie and Shinji were the only fourteen year-olds of the group. Sam claimed he was close to being fourteen, but Henry began to lightly tease him about the matter.

After a few games of losing dead last Shinji decided to listen to his music, something he found he wasn't able to do very often after being transported to America.

"Whoa! You have a walkman too?" Ellie whispered excitedly. Luckily, Shinji heard the girl's question since he wasn't using both earbuds. Shinji paused his tape, took out his earbud and picked up his SDAT. "Yeah, mine's an SDAT type." Shinji whispered back.

"SDAT? Never heard of that but mine's a Sony brand." Ellie gushed quietly and pulled out her own walkman. Shinji smiled at that, never did he think he'd find someone his own age that had a liking for walkmans. "So what kind of music do you like?" Ellie asked.

"Classical mostly, Beethoven is my favorite, but anything else is okay. You?" Shinji said to the girl. "Anything's okay with me, I don't really have a favorite. But it doesn't really matter because this fuckin' thing's broken and I have no idea what's wrong with it." Ellie quietly ranted.

Sam merely watched the two with a bored expression on his face, he didn't really care about music at the moment. Not when he was winning at poker anyway.

Being the kind person he was, Shinji saw his chance to help. "Maybe I can fix it, I've had mine since I was four. It's broken plenty of times and if I didn't fix it, no one else would. Your walkman can't be too different than mine." Shinji offered. Ellie handed him her walkman and said "Go ahead. What a stroke of luck." Shinji chuckled at that.

After taking the walkman out of Ellie's hand, Shinji then handed her his own. "This could take a while, so I thought you and Sam might enjoy it while you play. "Oh, ok thanks." She replied with a stunned expression. Ellie then put in an earbud and handed the other to Sam.

A full two minutes of Beethoven and poker later, Shinji poked Ellie's shoulder and handed the girl her walkman. "Fixed it!" Shinji whispered with an amused grin. "Wha-How did...There's no way you fixed it that fast!" She replied, confused. "You did realise the batteries were dead, right?" Shinji asked, barely holding back his laughter. "You have got to be shitting me. I changed those damn things!" She whispered with her face heating up.

"You must've gotten a bad batch. I had some extra in my backpack so I changed 'em." Shinji told her. "Oh, thanks." She replied. Shinji gave a quiet 'you're welcome' before Henry's voice got the teen's attention.

"Alright kids, pack it up. It's time to go." Henry ordered.

They did as they were told, and quickly packed their things. The trio stood up and stretched before Ellie walked over to Joel and gently woke him. Henry walked over to Sam and ordered him to stick to him like glue. Shinji stared out the window at the bandits below. The slow sweep of the spotlight entranced the boy as he steeled himself for the fight ahead.

He jumped slightly when Joel poked his shoulder and said "C'mon kiddo. We're leavin'." He nodded and followed Joel back to the others who stood on the other side of the room.

"Alright we're only get one shot at this, so let's make it quick and quiet. Joel and I will go first, and you guys follow our lead when we give you the all clear." Henry ordered. "But what if you get into trouble?" Sam asked. "Just stay back until we say so. We can handle it." Joel reassured the boy.

Sam could only nod at that.

The group then silently walked through the adjoining office and down the flight of stairs the lead to the building's main lobby. Two bandits stood in front of a fire at the far end of the lobby, chatting aimlessly. The group dropped to a crouch before Joel motioned for the teens to stay behind while he and Henry stalked silently towards the two bandits.

Henry and Joel struck in unison, with Joel strangling the one on the left while Henry stabbed his knife into the one on the right's throat.

The threat now dealt with, Joel motioned for the three teens to move up. "You three stay here until we call for ya." Joel whispered. "What!? This is so fucking stupid. You'd stand a much better chance if you'd let us help!" Ellie quietly scolded. "I am." Joel responded. He then handed the handed the girl a hunting rifle one of the bandits had held. "You reckon you can handle that?" He asked.

She fidgeted before replying. "Well, uh. I sorta shot a rifle before. But it was at rats." She squeaked. "Rats?" Joel asked nervously. "With BB's." She responded.

While the pair quietly conversed about the rifle, Shinji had been scanning the room looking for anything useful. After a few seconds he spotted a good vantage point Ellie could use with her new rifle. A pile of old furniture that had been haphazardly stacked in a corner was high enough that if one climbed it, the broken window at the top would be a good makeshift sniper's nest.

Shinji tapped the floor and got everyone's attention before pointing to his discovery. "Would that be a good vantage point?" He asked. "Yeah, that's perfect. Good find Shinji." Henry praised the boy. Shinji couldn't help but notice that Sam looked a bit miffed at Henry's praising of him, but wisely kept his mouth shut.

The group waited for the spotlight to move on before they made their move. Joel and Henry silently crept outside, using the old cars as cover to avoid the spotlight. Ellie scrambled up to her sniping point, while Sam and Shinji vaulted over the main lobby's desk. After doing so, they poked their heads up above the top to watch for trouble.

All three could see Joel and Henry from their positions, so they waited silently for the men to give them the all clear. The shot that rang out a few seconds later was deafening. The loud clicking noise, followed by banter and another gunshot relieved the three teens.

Joel and Henry hadn't been spotted after all.

A stray clicker held the bandit's attention while Henry and Joel snuck around their left flank. Had the bandit that was shooting at the clicker been a better shot, they might've survived. But slowly and surely, one by one they were silently taken out until only three remained.

The remaining three were on the catwalk where the spotlight was located. "Is it just me, or did it get quieter?" One bandit asked his companions. "Yeah, it did. Make sure Robbie didn't fall asleep again, will ya?" Another thug asked the first. The first bandit walked over to ladder leading to the ground, crouched down, peered over, and said "Heh, if he is I'm gonna-Ack!"

The thug didn't get finish his sentence before Joel's hand gripped his throat and ripped him from his perch onto the concrete below.

"What the fuck!?" Yelled another bandit. As soon as he finished yelling, three rounds struck his chest courtesy of Henry's 9mm pistol. The last bandit snarled and pulled something from his pocket, before yelling "Eat this, assholes!"

The man pulled the grenade's pin, but before he could throw it a bullet pierced his skull.

Joel and Henry dropped to the ground and covered their ears. The huge boom that followed suit sounded loud enough to wake the dead. The two men then sprang to their feet and whistled for the kids to move.

Ellie tried to reload her rifle in case of any further dangers but the old rifle jammed, so she tossed it aside and leapt from her perch. Shinji and Sam vaulted from their hiding spot and ran after her.

As soon as the trio reached Joel and Henry, the roar of an engine could be heard from their right. A few seconds later shouting could also be heard, followed by the armored truck's arrival. The truck had spotted them and opened fire on their position.

Luckily for them, the gunner couldn't get a clear shot at them due to the sun having long since gone down. The truck also moved slowly due to the amount of old cars strewn about across the road.

Joel and Henry used this to their advantage as they pried open the heavy gates that allowed them past the checkpoint. Joel ushered the teens through, before Henry and himself followed suit. Past the gate lay an old semi-truck with a ladder on its trailer and a another gate that locked up tight.

As the group sprinted towards it, bandits clambered onto the top of it from the other side. They didn't last long however, as Joel and Henry unloaded on them.

The group reached the ladder before Joel began to boost people up. Since the ladder had partially broken and didn't reach the ground, it was the quickest way to escape. The next gate would take far too long, and they didn't have much time. The truck had almost reached the first gate.

Henry was first one on top of the semi-truck, followed by Sam, and then Ellie. Shinji was next, but as soon as he put his weight on the old ladder it collapsed and broke off the truck.

Shinji landed in a heap before Joel grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet. A loud crash and gunfire impacted on the first gate. The truck had reached the first gate and was trying to break through it.

Henry frantically looked back and forth between Joel and Shinji, and the other side of the truck. He made his decision and looked at the stranded pair with apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry!" Henry said quickly. He then grabbed Sam's hand and pulled the boy towards the other end of the truck past the gates before jumping down with his brother.

"What!? This is bullshit! What the fuck, Henry!?" Ellie yelled at the retreating brothers. Shinji could only watch the pair with wide eyes and a feeling of betrayal. Joel and Ellie glared at the pair before another loud crash broke them from their stupor.

Shinji spun in a circle, desperately looking for an escape route when Ellie landed on her feet next to him. Her sudden appearance startled him a bit calmed him slightly when she spoke. "We stick together!" She exclaimed.

Shinji could tell the words were directed more towards Joel and not himself, but still helped to calm him a bit anyway.

A third crash followed by the gate denting made the three spring into action. Across from them was a large garage style back door. They ran over to the door and frantically tried to lift it. They had barely manage to lift the door three feet when the armored truck finally broke through the gate.

Joel grunted with exertion when the two let go and slipped under the door, but quickly felt relief when they again grabbed the door from the other side. Bullets whizzed past him as he slipped under the door himself. More rounds could be heard peppering the door.

The immediate threat dealt with, Shinji spun on his heels and sprinted towards a doorway at the far end of the room. Ellie and Joel were right on his heels. The doorway they ran through lead them to what was once an old bar.

The three bandits that happened to be inside immediately took notice of their arrival.

The three survivors took aim before the bandits pull their own weapons. Joel and Ellie unloaded on one of the bandits while Shinji only fired one shot at another bandit, sprinting towards him while he did.

The round Shinji fired hit the man's kneecap, shattering it. He fell with a scream of pain that quickly became a gurgle when Shinji drove his knife into the man's throat. The last bandit saw a possible gain and attempted to grab the boy.

He wasn't very successful.

The man grabbed Shinji's arms but before he could pull the boy in front of him for use as a human shield, Shinji drove his knee into the man's groin. The man screeched in pain and loosened his grip on Shinji's arms enough for him to break free.

Shinji quickly ended the man's life by driving his knife into the man's skull. The ordeal had lasted only a few seconds.

"Shit, man. I thought you said you weren't that good a shot yet!" Ellie cursed. "Well, considering I was aiming for his head…"Shinji trailed off. "Oh. Well, nice shot anyway." She praised. "Kids. Enough chit chat, let's go." Joel ordered.

They moved quickly to the front of the bar only to find the double doors chained together. After a slight tug, Joel found the could open just enough for them to slip through. Before he could usher the kids through, Shinji had sent a chair sailing into the large window to their right.

The old glass couldn't take the impact and shattered instantly.

Ellie and Joel simply stared at the boy. He stared back with a confused look plastered on his face. "What? The doors were chained!" He blurted. "Nothin'. Let's go." Joel responded. Ellie could barely hold back her giggles. The trio climbed through the window, careful to avoid the glass.

The loud crash and sounds of gunfire at the second gate wiped the smile from her face.

The group realised that they had the bridge and began sprinting down the highway that merged into the bridge. But before they could round the corner of the curved highway, the armored truck broke through the second gate and once again started to shoot a them.

Shinji, being the fastest, took the lead, followed by Ellie and Joel. The road they ran on was littered with concrete barriers and military sandbags, but the truck had no bulldozing its way through the obstacles.

As he ran Shinji noticed two overturned buses with a gap between them. The gap was too small for the truck to fit, so Shinji yelled for his allies to follow. The buses did slow the truck a lot, but it had enough power to move them ever so slowly.

Shinji's plan would've most likely worked. Had the bridge not have been crumbling.

Ellie and Shinji peered over the edge of the ruined street at the river below while Joel frantically looked in every direction for any way out he could find. "We gotta jump!" Ellie barked. "But I can't swim!" Shinji admitted. His companions looked at him with wide eyes before Joel snapped his attention back to the truck that was slowly pushing the overturned bus towards the edge.

"Neither can I, but if you wanna live we gotta jump." She insisted. "No! I'll boost you up, and you run past them!" Joel bellowed at the two. She gave Shinji an apologetic smile and gave him a simple "Sorry for this." before grabbing his hand.

Shinji blushed at the contact, but suppressed at her shouting at Joel. "Joel it's Endure and Survive time! We're leaving!" She boomed. Ellie then promptly dragged Shinji to edge and lept off, bringing him along for the ride. They were followed immediately by Joel. Shinji merely screamed on the way down.

She didn't expect him to have such a girly scream.

To be continued…

 **XXXXXX**

 **Woo! It's finally back, after a far longer delay than I had initially planned. Writer's block was harder to get rid of than I thought it would. Decided on a bit longer chapter this. You lovely readers out there let me know if you like the chapter length. Should they be longer? Shorter? Anyway those first few chapters were a mess of grammatical errors and bizarre structure that didn't make much sense. I'm not sure how I messed them up that badly, but the updates should improve them greatly. Happy Holidays everyone!**

 **Sayonara, Peace**


	6. Chapter 6: Into the sewers

Chapter 6: Into the sewers

Evangelion belongs to Gainax and Studio Khara. The Last of Us belongs to Naughty Dog and Sony. I don't own anything, so please don't sue me.

 **AN: Fixed some errors and added a little bit more to the chapter to make it flow better and make things actually make sense when they don't.**

 **XXXXXX**

' _I'm gonna die!'_ Shinji mentally screamed as he and Ellie plummeted towards the frigid river below.

He couldn't believe it was going to end like this. He had survived multiple battles with giant monsters, the literal end of the world, and being thrown into an unknown world full of fungus zombies and crazy people. Only to meet his end from a little water. He would've thought it was a little pathetic if he had time to think about it before he and Ellie hit the water.

The pair pierced the surface with all the grace of falling boulders. Luckily the laws of physics brought them back to the surface with lots of gasping and sputtering. But because of the strong current and their inability to swim Shinji and Ellie had a very hard time keeping their heads above the water.

They clung desperately to each other, trying to keep each other afloat. A second splash a mere three seconds later caught their attention as Joel swam towards them as best he could in the strong current.

"Grab onto me!" Joel shouted.

The teens quickly did so to save themselves from a watery grave.

"Rocks!" Shinji screamed while pointing behind them.

Joel shifted his head in the direction Shinji pointed, only to see a menagerie of large, jagged rocks jutting up from above the water.

Joel grabbed the two and twisted his body so that his back would hit the rock they were speeding towards instead of the kids that he positioned to his front. When the three did hit the rock, Joel's back took the brunt of the impact and was instantly knocked unconscious. Unfortunately for the teens, the impact still had enough force to knock them unconscious as well.

The trio's bodies went limp and were flung violently along by the river's current. Neither of the three moved by themselves, until Shinji opened his eyes.

Shinji's normally cobalt blue eyes glowed a dark, blood red and he began to swim toward his companions with the ease of an olympic swimmer or an aquatic creature. Quite an odd feat for the lad, considering Shinji couldn't swim.

Once he was was within range, Shinji grabbed his companions by their backpacks and yanked their heads above the water. He craned his neck to the left and saw two lone figures walking along the shoreline. Seeing an opportunity for help the boy attempted to drag his companions toward the shore.

His efforts weren't fruitful. Joel and Ellie's combined weight along with the force of the current were starting to tire the boy out. But he wasn't about to just give up! The boy's visage held all the ferocity of a wild beast as his crimson eyes glowed brighter and a beastly snarl adorned his face as some unseen force propelled him and his allies toward the the shore.

Once the three were within fifteen feet of the shore one of the figures took notice and alerted the other to their presence. The force that propelled them started to waver and the bright red glow of Shinji's eyes began to dim.

When they were within seven feet of the shore the force gave out entirely, and Shinji's eyes reverted back to their normal blue and he promptly passed out again.

 **XXXXXX**

"...up. Wake up, Shinji." A voice echoed in Shinji's mind. He awoke with a fright and a sputtering cough. Ellie and Joel were crouched next to him.

"Hey, thought we lost you there for a second." Ellie worried.

"What happened?" Shinji slurred.

"We saved you. You guys almost drowned." Chimed another voice.

Shinji looked in the direction of the voice, only to find that it was Henry and Sam.

"Don't know how you did it, but you kept your friends from drowning." Henry continued.

What Henry had just told him confused Shinji greatly. He was knocked out, how could he possibly keep Joel and Ellie from drowning?

"I thought you said you couldn't swim." Ellie chimed.

"I can't. The impact knocked me out!" Shinji explained.

"He's not wrong. You guys were all unconscious when we pulled you outta the river." Henry injected.

"But Shinji there had a deathgrip on your backpacks, kept your heads above the water." He continued.

"Um, ok?" Shinji replied.

"Well thanks for the save. Again." Ellie said to the puzzled Third Child.

"You don't have to thank for that, I mean I can't even remember doing anything besides panicking!" Shinji exclaimed.

She gave him a shrug. "I guess miracles do exist."

Joel and Ellie then stood up. He also attempted to stand but clumsily fell backwards onto to his bottom. Ellie just smiled at him and extended her hand to the boy. He quickly took it and she helped him to his feet. When he did stand, the world spun and he staggered slightly.

"Are you okay?" Ellie asked, concerned.

He put his hands on his knees, bent over slightly, and watched Misato's cross sway back and forth as it hung from around his neck. It was a miracle that the river hadn't swept it away. Miracles did exist indeed.

"Yeah... just a bit winded." He panted.

"Are you sure?" Ellie asked. He merely nodded and tried to wave off the sudden vertigo.

After a few seconds of panting, Shinji shook his head yes and found himself able to move without staggering.

Joel had kept his eyes locked on Henry and Sam during the whole conversation. When Henry made to walk closer Joel swiftly pushed him to the ground and pointed his gun towards him. Henry then began to reason with the old timer, but Shinji paid them little heed. His mind was still reeling from what Henry had told him. Shinji watched them but his mind wandered away.

' _How could I have possibly grabbed Ellie and Joel's backpacks? There's no way I saved them!'_ Shinji thought.

" **That is because you didn't. I did."** A distorted voice whispered in Shinji's head.

He nearly had a panic attack at the sudden intrusion into his mind. The others didn't notice his sudden panic. They were too focused on Henry, who now stood again, talking about the radio station that he and Sam were heading to.

' _Who are you!? Where are you!? What are you?!'_ Shinji mentally questioned. He received no answer.

' _What the hell is going on!?'_ Shinji mentally screamed. Still no reply from the voice.

Shinji couldn't help but feel frustrated at the lack of answers, but there really wasn't anything he could do about a random voice inside his head that could possibly come and go whenever it wanted. Exasperated, he turned his attention back to Henry and Sam.

"You're gonna be glad you didn't kill me." Henry exclaimed to Joel.

The two brothers then began walking down the shoreline once more and called out that they were going to search the left side of the beach for supplies.

"We'll see if I'll be glad." Joel muttered.

"Man, that was intense. You guys alright?" Ellie asked the pair.

"Fine/I'm alright." They responded.

The trio then started walking down the right side of the beach to search for supplies of their own.

"Bet you're glad to be out of the city, huh?" Ellie questioned. Shinji looked at her before answering.

"Yeah, like you wouldn't believe. There's only so much hiding, fighting, and bridge jumping I can take at one time." He sighed. Ellie gave him an evil smirk.

"What?' Shinji asked.

"Such a manly scream…" She teased playfully. Shinji's face heated up in embarrassment.

"Shut up! I thought I was dead for sure!" He snapped.

Ellie noticed that although Shinji had said the words with a defensive tone, his face held a sort of kicked puppy look. It wasn't often Shinji actively showed aggression towards others he considered friendly, but the last week had left the boy very on edge. Shinji couldn't help but to lash out.

He realized what he had done and muttered a quiet "I'm sorry" and found the ground interesting to look at.

"I'm just messin' with ya. It's ok." She joked.

Ellie decided not to tease her newfound friend too hard until she found out why he looked so much like a scolded puppy when teased. She chose to give the boy some confirmation that she wasn't all teasing.

"Alright, I won't mess with you anymore." She stated with an apologetic look.

This took Shinji by surprise. He wasn't used to people simply giving up on teasing him. Toji and Kensuke liked to pull his chain sometimes, Asuka teased him whenever she got the chance, and Misato went a bit too far sometimes. Even Kaji and Ritsuko did it sometimes when they needed to deflect some of the teasing being thrown their way by Misato. He knew most of it was harmless but in his emotional state during his time in Tokyo-3 he was very sensitive and remained so to a lesser degree even up to this point. Meeting Asuka and living with Misato allowed him to build an immunity to it somewhat, but it still hurt sometimes.

To meet someone his age that knew when to stop teasing was a breath of fresh air for the lad. Touji and Kensuke knew when to stop most of the time but didn't always take the hint that he wanted them to stop and he was too shy to outright tell them to knock it off.

"You mean you're not gonna tease me?" Shinji asked quizzically.

"Nope. I can tell you really don't like it. Your face gives it away." She pointed out. He looked at her and smiled with a brightness that no one had seen him use in quite some time.

"Thank you." He beamed softly.

The pure sincerity in his smile and simple 'thank you' caught Ellie off guard. All she did was tell him she'd stop teasing him, yet Shinji looked as if she had saved him from some terrible fate.

"Y-you're welcome." She stuttered awkwardly.

Ellie had never seen someone so happy over something so trivial. Ellie didn't know what to say to Shinji after that and decided to remain quiet for a bit, until Joel spoke up.

""Well, would ya look at that." Joel murmured.

His sudden words caught the teens' attention, and they looked at him. He pointed past them in response to their questioning gazes. Since the two had been chatting with each other, they weren't paying attention to what lay ahead of them. Twenty feet ahead sat an old boat that had crashed into the shore.

"Cool! Let's check it out!" Ellie chirped excitedly.

The awkwardness of the previous conversation left her mind as she jogged towards the beached craft with Joel and Shinji in tow. The old vessel was tilted, making it quite easy for the three survivors to get onboard.

"Hmm, looks like an old fishin' boat." Joel announced. Shinji merely stood next to him while Ellie walked about the deck, taking in every little detail.

"First time on a boat?" Shinji asked the curious girl.

"Yeah. It's pretty cool." She breathed.

"Yeah well, it's a bit different in the water." Joel grinned.

"The 'Over the Rainbow' was a lot different in the water." Shinji blurted out.

Joel interest peaked. "You've been on a boat before, huh?"

"What's the 'Over the Rainbow'?" Ellie questioned.

Shinji scratched his head nervously. He quickly racked his mind for reasons why he was on the vessel and what the ship was without sounding insane. He couldn't very well tell them he was there to greet another Evangelion pilot like himself on a gigantic aircraft carrier. Though he hated to do so, and the fact that couldn't tell a lie to save his life made Shinji more than a little nervous of what he was about to do.

Luckily for him, Shinji had just recently met his companions. They didn't know him that well yet. How were they supposed to know he was lying? Still, lying to good people made Shinji uncomfortable.

"Y-yeah. The 'Over the Rainbow' was the ship my group used to get to America." He stuttered.

"Odd name for a ship." Ellie said with a raised eyebrow.

"That's what I thought when I first heard it too." Shinji replied.

He prayed no one asked more questions about the 'Over the Rainbow', he didn't know how he'd be able to answer them. When the awestruck redhead turned her gaze back to him, Shinji sweat dropped and started to mentally panic. Ellie opened her mouth to speak again but before she could say anything Sam's voice filled the air, calling everyone over.

Apparently he and Henry had found something.

Their interest peaked, the trio hopped over the side of the beached craft and walked over to Sam. He merely gestured for them to follow and clambered over some rocks to where his brother stood. Ellie, Joel, and Shinji followed him up to where he and Henry stood atop the rocks and climbed up themselves.

"Check this out." Henry pointed out.

The trio turned their heads to see what Henry was pointing at. A few feet away was a large drain with a lid. The metal lid was built like the bars in a prison cell so water could flow smoothly through it. The group walked over to the old drain and peered inside. It was pitch black inside.

Henry pulled out a flashlight and switched it on to see inside. With the addition of light, the group now saw that the drain lead inward past the small cliffs they stood under.

"That could work. Henry gimme a hand." Joel grunted as he tried to lift the heavy, metal lid. Henry joined him in lifting the sewer lid.

When the two men had lifted the lid high enough, the three teens slipped underneath and helped to lift it high enough for Joel and Henry to slip under themselves. Once Henry and Joel had gotten to the inside of the drain, they carefully lowered the metal lid back into place before taking out their flashlights. The inside of the drain was dark. Not dark enough you couldn't see without a flashlight, but one would have to strain to do so.

Sam and Ellie also pulled flashlights out of their backpacks. Ellie and Joel tied their flashlights onto their backpack straps so they didn't have to hold them. Henry and Sam saw and mirrored them. Shinji suddenly began mentally cursing himself. He had forgotten to pack a flashlight!

Joel noticed the look of distress on the boy's face.

"What is it?" He asked.

"I don't have a flashlight!" Shinji cried.

In retrospect when he was packing for his little trip, he didn't expect to be crawling through dark spaces, like the sewer the group now found themselves in. The result being that he had forgotten to pack a flashlight. He began mentally berating himself, Lilith had told him to be prepared!

Shinji realized that without the small ground level windows and holes in the ceiling, he would've never made out of the hotel basement. Dark places were where the infected had the advantage, they didn't need flashlights.

"Just stay close to me then." Joel sighed.

It was always something, wasn't it? The first kid he had to babysit reminded WAY too much of his deceased daughter and the newest edition, while capable of fending for himself, was unprepared for their current situation.

Shinji nodded and kept pace with the older man.

"Hey, the path ahead splits. Me and Sam got the left side." Henry called out.

"Alright. If you need us, just holler!" Joel barked. Henry nodded and ushered Sam to stay close.

The three proceeded to walk down the right pathway. As they walked Shinji was suddenly reminded of something.

"Hey Ellie, why did you yell it's 'Endure and Survive time' on the bridge? Does it mean something?" Shinji asked curiously.

"Oh, it's a thing from this comic I've been reading. The main character says it after a big battle." She explained.

 _'Hmm, it makes a good catchphrase now that I think about it.'_ She thought.

Shinji nodded with a look of understanding before it instantly changed into a look of utter confusion.

"What's a comic?" Shinji inquired innocently.

Ellie, and even Joel, thought that was more than a little odd.

Ellie gave the boy a confused look of her own. "I'll show you when we get to the radio station." She told the boy.

' _How does he not know what a comic is? He must be more sheltered than I thought. Is is because he's not from the US?'_ Ellie questioned mentally.

She would have to wait until later to find the answer.

"Oh, okay." He nodded.

The three then happened across a chain link fence with a door made in the same fashion. A large crate sat against the other side of the door. Joel gave the door a solid push to no avail, it was jammed. It was then that Shinji noticed the small open vent in the wall behind the door.

Ellie followed his gaze and saw what he was looking at and saw another small vent in the wall to their left.

"Hey look, there's another one. Betcha those vents connect." Ellie pointed out.

"Most likely." Shinji replied.

The trio moved over to the vent and crouched down in front of it. Unlike the one behind the fence, the one in front of them had a covering. "If you guys can pry it open, I can get the door."

The two males nodded and ripped the old covering off with ease, and when they did the largest rat Shinji had ever seen skittered out from the inside of the vent. The two teens voiced their distaste at the small creature and Joel simply rolled his eyes at the pair's reaction.

"Alright, I'm going through." Ellie told the two before dropping to her hands and knees before slowly making her way through to the other side. Shinji quickly averted his eyes, less he be caught staring at her butt. Even though she was facing away from him Shinji didn't dare look. After plenty of accusations of him being a pervert from Asuka he got used to it but did NOT want the same accusations from his new friend.

A sudden thought of Ellie shooting him for looking at her in that way crossed his mind and snapped him back to reality. He was pretty sure Ellie wouldn't do something that drastic but he still didn't want to be labeled a pervert.

"You sure do space out a lot don't you?" Ellie asked.

"I guess…" He trailed off.

His eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he realized that Ellie was right next to him on his side of the gate. In his overthinking he had lost focus.

"Maybe I do that more than I thought." Shinji said.

"No shit. I wouldn't do that if you want to keep breathing" Joel chimed in.

Shinji flinched and nodded in response. Joel was right, now was not the time for daydreaming.

"Here." Ellie said to the boy.

Shinji turned his head towards the redhead to see her extended hand holding an extra flashlight she had found in the small room. The Third Child gave a quick 'thank you' before tying it to his backpack strap like Ellie and Joel had done with theirs.

Meanwhile Joel had torn the small room upside down and found a little extra ammo for his revolver and a note left by someone named Ish. Apparently Ish had been a guard at this community and the the boat they found beached on the shore had been his.

A sudden yell from Henry drew the trio's attention and they hurried down a corridor that connected to the tunnel Henry and Sam were in.

"We found a way through." Henry told the trio.

The reunited group followed the hallway a short ways before coming upon a big obstacle for the younger members of the group. It was a large flooded room with some sort of large machine in the water. The contraption had a platform that looked like it was used to transport people across the water and there was a small generator attached to a console on the other side of the water.

"Uh, guys. I can't swim." Sam squeaked nervously.

"Join the club. Neither can I or Shinji." Ellie chuckled.

Joel let out a heavy exhale, pinched the bridge of his nose, and looked at Henry. "If you tell me YOU can't swim I'm gonna through all of you in and let ya learn on the spot."

Henry merely laughed and looked around for some way to get across the water. He then noticed the enormous, metal gate in the water next to them that moved and creaked ever so slightly. Joel caught on to where Henry was looking at and noticed the gate had a wheel next to it that looked like it was used to open and close the gate.

Joel tried with all his might, and even with help from Henry the wheel didn't budge.

"It's probably jammed from underneath. I'm gonna check it out." Joel informed the group.

He promptly jumped in the water and dove underneath the water.

Shinji stared at the water where the man had dived under and began to clench and unclench his fists without realizing it. Ellie noticed the nervous habit and looked at Shinji. He was focussing intently on the water

"You ok?" Ellie asked the nervous lad.

"Yeah, just anxious. I'm ready to get out of these tunnels." He answered.

"I hear that, buddy." Henry chimed in.

Joel suddenly surfaced and Shinji nearly jumped out of his skin. Joel told Henry to try the wheel again, with successful results this time. Shinji paid it little attention as he forced his breathing to return to normal. The four survivors watched Joel swim underneath the gate and return a minute later with a large wooden palate. He regretted watching all those horror movies with Misato, they'd made him too easy to scare.

"I hate doing this…" Ellie muttered.

She then walked to the edge and carefully jumped onto the palate. She tried to distribute her weight evenly on the palate as Joel slowly pushed it towards the other end of the room. Shinji watched with nervous concern in his eyes. He really didn't want the girl to fall in.

Luckily she didn't, to Shinji's relief.

When Ellie and Joel reached the other side Ellie hauled herself back onto solid ground before attempting to rev up the generator. After a minute of failed attempts and loud curses, the generator sputtered to life.

"Alright guys get on the platform!" Ellie ordered the others on the opposite end.

They did so and watched Ellie fiddle with the console's many buttons and switches. Ellie quickly figured out the controls and flipped the switch that moved the platform. It slowly chugged forward with a metallic grinding sound.

The whole thing made Shinji's growing uncomfort even further.

Eventually the platform reached its destination and trio of passengers disembarked. Henry then helped Joel up from the water. While the rest of the group waited for Joel to wring himself out as best he could, Shinji stared down the long hallway they now stood in front of, shining his new flashlight all about to check for danger.

A second light shone next his as Ellie glanced down the hallway as well.

"What is it?" She asked softly.

"I don't know. I got a bad feeling about this place, something feels off." He replied.

"It's a creepy sewer, what did you expect? Of course it feels off." She stated.

Shinji shook his head in response.

"That's not it. Look." Shinji pointed out.

Down the hallway from the group were a set of large double doors with two large barrels of some kind in front of them. Everyone else picked up on his words and turned to where he was pointing. The thing that intrigued Shinji was that a cartoonish castle drawn on the wall surrounding the double doors.

Did someone live here?

"What do you think's in there?" Sam asked.

"Well we're about to find out." Joel answered.

The group pulled out their weapons and walked carefully towards the door. Shinji looked up at the ceiling to notice a large pipe that ran past the double doors. Right before they reached the doors Shinji went against his nature and decided to speak up.

"D-do we have to go in there?" Shinji stuttered.

"Yeah, ditto. I would really like to get outta here." Ellie chimed in.

"Sorry guys, we don't have much of a choice. If we turn back now we might miss me and Sam's group." Henry replied.

The two teens sighed in defeat and waited for Joel to take the lead. Joel reached forward and pushed the door open causing a plastic basket tied to the ceiling to tip over, releasing bottles that shattered all over the ground.

"What the hell?" Ellie exclaimed.

"Sound trap. It's basically an alarm." Henry explained.

"Looks like somebody lived here once. That don't seem to be the case now." Joel commented.

"Well if there are still people here they know we're here now." Shinji contributed.

Joel and Henry shared a glance, and took point in front of the teens. There was truth to the boy's words. Just because a place looked abandoned didn't mean it was, and if there was danger ahead they had to be the barrier from it to their wards.

Down the hallway was a waist high barrier and various old shelves and other items scattered about. An odd smell smell hung in the air and a general feeling of danger was on the rise. Shinji was starting to understand why he was feeling so uneasy about this sewer. There were either people there now, or had been at one time.

They had walked a couple of feet when Sam spied more pressing evidence that someone did or still lived here. Shinji's other hand not holding his pistol began to clench and unclench again when he saw what it was, or moreso what was on it.

On the wall to group's left was a large whiteboard with a sign above it that read 'House Rules', and on the whiteboard were the actual rules themselves.

Some of the rules like 'No running' and 'No loud play' made the hair on the back of the Third Child's neck stand up. Play meant children and that meant that he might see dead kids in this little journey underground. He did NOT want to see that. Ever since going with Touji to visit his little sister Sakura in the hospital, Shinji found he had a weakness to kids. That little girl had wormed her way into his heart forever.

Children also represented innocence, a trait that had long been cast away from him. The memories of Sakura were a topic of much mental torture for the boy. It was his fault she was hospitalized, yet when he visited she always seemed so happy to see him. She idolized him as the hero who saved the city, something he never viewed himself as.

Before his mind could begin the downward spiral he reminded himself what he learned in Third Impact.

It was possible for him to love himself. Eventually he would be able to connect with others. Ellie had even said she'd help him! How she going to actually do that Shinji didn't know, but he trusted the foul-mouthed redhead regardless. Because of his time in Tokyo-3 Shinji had gotten very good at reading people. He picked up the subtle things and could tell when people were lying most of the time. So far Ellie seemed to be an honestly good natured person. He would trust her and go along with what she said for now.

That is, assuming he didn't die first.

Thankfully for the boy's psche no one decided to comment on the whiteboard, but Ellie noticed the odd quirk's return. As they continued down the hallway Sam drifted away from the other two teens towards his brother while Shinji and Ellie lagged behind a bit. Secretly she had hoped he would so she got a chance to talk to her new friend more privately. In what barebones privacy they had being only a few feet behind everyone else.

Ellie remembered her earlier words to him. She had promised to help him with people and right now people seemed to make him very uncomfortable. So she decided the best approach was to get Shinji to trust her and maybe, just maybe, he'd open up to her.

Then she could work on getting him used to others beside herself. Joel was the next person she'd try and get him to relax around.

' _One step at a time.'_ She told herself.

"Are you alright, Shinji?" She whispered to the boy.

"Huh? What do you mean?" He puzzled.

Ellie pointed to his hand and whispered again. "I just noticed you're doing the whole hand thingy again. You said you do that when you're stressed, right?"

He gave her a small nod before responding. "Yeah, I'm ok though. Really." He replied quietly.

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? We can talk about if you want."

He shook his head and gave a meek "It's ok, don't worry about it" and looked everywhere but at Ellie.

Ahead of them the tunnel split into two ways. On the left the path continued on to a corner and on the right was a small side room with lockers lining a wall and light streaming in through the ceiling.

"Let's give it the once over, couldn't hurt to check." Joel ordered. No one objected.

Henry walked over to where the light was coming from and searched the corner there. Joel opened the remaining lockers to reveal a kind of sawed-off shotgun that he called a 'shorty' and some ammo for it. Ellie and Sam playfully kicked around a soccer ball until they were quickly told to keep it down.

While everyone else quietly searched for supplies, Shinji wandered down the left path. His reason being a noise he thought he heard and to scout for potential danger. He made it halfway to the path's corner when he heard a familiar gurgling moan.

There were infected here. How many he couldn't be sure until he saw them.

Thanks to his week in the hotel Shinji knew now how the infected tended to act. Some made loud screeching, some made soft moans, and others made no sound at all. Since he couldn't risk going around the corner in front of him so he turned around and came face to face with Joel. The older man had leaned down to get face to face with him.

It took all his willpower not to scream in fright, he hadn't expected anyone to be that close. Everyone had noticed his absence quite quickly and had caught up with him very fast.

"Kid, do you have a death wish? 'Cause that's gonna happen if you keep wande-" A familiar screech cut Joel off.

"I thought I heard something so I went to check...maybe warn everyone if it was dangerous." Shinji whispered.

"Yeah…" Joel let the word hang in the air. His tone was gruff but there was understanding written in the older man's eyes.

Now that everyone figured what was going on they dropped to a crouch after Shinji himself did so. They crept silently towards the corner with Shinji in the lead. Joel motioned for Shinji to get behind him but Shinji merely unsheathed his knife and pointed towards the corner.

A look of understanding swept across the adults' faces and confusion on Ellie and Sam's.

Shinji had remembered a trick Misato had shown him with her tiny makeup mirror. Turn a mirror at just the right angle and you could use it to see around corners. He had no mirror with him but his combat knife was still shiny enough to work in this situation.

He carefully extended his arm and tilted the knife to see what lay around the bend. Sam and Ellie now understood what he was doing.

No infected thankfully, only a large prison cell style door. He tried to see what was past the bars but the lack of light was making that task difficult. The Third Child gulped and boldly stuck his head around the corner. He stood up and all followed suit.

"I don't see anything." Shinji whispered to the group.

"Alright. We go first this time." Henry piped up and motioned for Shinji to get back.

Shinji nodded in response. Henry and Joel then took the lead and walked slowly around the corner with the three teens right behind him. They reached the old door and pushed it open. It swung wide and creaked loudly as it did.

The door connected them to a larger tunnel with a large pile of objects halfway down it that looked to have been erected as a makeshift barrier or cover for a firefight. The five survivors descended a small flight of stairs into ankle deep water.

Before they had a chance to take in their surroundings a large infected man came barreling out of the darkness to the group's right. They had barely any time to react before it was upon them. The creature had nearly reached Joel when Shinji showed off his increasing marksman skills by putting two bullets into its temple.

The shot was deafening in the enclosed tunnel.

"Raaaaauuugh!" Monstrous screams echoed down the tunnel.

Everyone turned about wildly shining their flashlights every which way, trying to locate the creatures before they got too close. Not one second later Ellie spotted them. They were two runners and a clicker sprinting towards the group from the other end of the tunnel. They fell down the staircase at the opposite end of the room before getting up and resuming their charge.

"There! Three more!" Ellie announced.

The infected had just reached the waist high barrier and were desperately trying to clamber over it but Joel wasn't about to give them the chance. The grizzled man rushed forward and stopped a mere five feet from the infected, aimed his shorty, and pulled the trigger. The shorty's increased spread took care of all three infected with one shot. Fungus, blood, and brain matter painted most of the barrier.

"Cowabunga, fuckers!" Ellie muttered to herself while doing a small fist pump.

The group shared a collective sigh of relief. They all took a second to survey their surroundings proper now that they weren't being attacked. The group noticed that light leaked from the direction the first infected had came from. They shined their flashlights towards it to reveal that the light was coming from another side room.

The survivors shuffled carefully to the entrance of the room and peered in.

No infected were inside. Without a threat they strode into the room proper. Large containers of some sort sat in the back of the room and a corpse so old it was a practically a skeleton lay against more lockers to the right.

"What're those things?" Shinji asked while pointing to the containers.

"They look like raincatchers. I reckon they catch the water that falls down from that little hole." Joel answered.

Shinji looked at where the light streamed in and there was indeed a small hole that likely lead to the surface. Water dripped down from it into an open container.

"Smart move. Whoever lived here had it all figured out, until they got fucked over somehow." Ellie blurted.

No one said anything after that, they didn't have to. They knew there were no people left. This place had fallen a long time judging by the skeletal corpse and the clicker that had attacked them. The Third Child recalled what the man that first attacked him at the hotel said. Clickers took a long time to form. Shinji tore his eyes from the corpse and forced the image of what the man could've been like from his mind.

No reason to think of things that would drain his sanity even more than it already had been drained.

Joel found nothing of use in the lockers and motioned the group out of the room. They all walked to the barrier that had stopped the infected just long enough for to blast them with the shorty. They stuck to right side and crawled over one by one on account of the gore that painted the rest of the barrier.

Another small flight of stairs met them at the end of the room and the group trotted up them, weapons at the ready just in case. No surprises awaited them at the top. Just another small hallway that opened up to a much larger room.

When the five walked into the open room Ellie spied a possible way out.

"Hey, check that out." Ellie pointed out while descending the small flight of stairs into the room.

Directly in front of them was a large hole in the wall that looked like a promising way out. The only problem was that it was fifteen feet off the ground. While the group stood and discussed how they were going to get up to the hole Sam noticed another way to go.

On their right was another prison style door with metal bars around it that made it look very much like a prison cell. Those style doors had most like been built on the possibility that the tunnel needed to be flushed with water, making it easier to go through. Sam walked over to the door and attempted to open it. But it wasn't budging, time and the humid air had rusted the old door heavily.

"Here, let me give ya a hand." Joel said to the boy. He nodded and waited for Joel to act.

The other three hadn't notice them move. They were too busy trying to brainstorm a way up to the hole. Joel placed his hands on the door's handle alongside Sam and forced the door open with all his might. The door snapped open and mechanisms could be heard whizzing and buzzing. The thunderous crash behind them told Joel and Sam they shouldn't have tried to open that door.

To be continued…

 **XXXXXX**

 **Holy crap this is overdue! Stuff in the real world just kept halting my progress on this for so long I didn't think I would ever get to finish this chapter. Also after rereading the first few chapters I realized how bad they were and how I need fix them, errors abundant in those. I promise the next chapter will come sooner. Also check out my other fic Guns in the Valley if you like this one.**

 **Sayonara, Peace!**


End file.
